■ ■ 



^m 



■^■J 






■ 

■ - ■ ' i * j * r* . - 






■■ 



,v« 



' HI HUBBUB BnHntiBWflW tiflTffflP (frnni1ff <^^^^QC^PP^^ 

ffls B&mm Emm 
■ ffig $$$ Sffli 

fcfl iM MIfflffll m 

HMMHWU 

El B i 

■■■■■■■■■■■■ Iftwwwwft 
j;;.i ■ ■ ■■■■■ ■ I B CmJOsjwnQKsCxS 

Hi bV^H gfiHttl 

■ 





■ ■ ■ ■ K 

■^■■^■^H^H^^H^B HUH! noBfifiuOCft 
S\&w , iiii l Aav-:'-' i>'iv< .':• ■ . ■■1 ■■■ I - :.'J I ■■■■■■■1 I 



■ ■ B 



wmmm 



XB& 






raw HB IBS 

■■■H BBSS fMaWttS W(B mffiB 

— — B— — H whI 

Bfl B flUBBi WlaW awo! 

nn 

MMUM WiW B i MHlBiHMlM W tlH BHl HW WWWnW WflMHH 
HnmMH *"W»Wt¥ H UHWfl n W W H I WWtlal l a ll lil H flflnDuUB 




Glass TS 136 
Bnok > G £3 



—9 




55 
5*' 

W 
Cu 
O 

55 

co 

55 

<J 
»— » 

Q 
15 
<J 

Q 

O 
PQ 



REVISED EDITION. 

A COMPLETE 

Dictionary of Dry Goods 

d 

AND HISTORY OF '~""7/f"*> *i 

' A/ 7 

Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool and other Fibrous Substances 

INCLUDING A FULL EXPLANATION OF THE 
MODERN PROCESSES OF 

SPINNING, DYEING AND WEAVING, 

WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING 
A TREATISE ON 

WINDOW TRIMMING, 

GERMAN WORDS AND PHRASES, WITH THEIR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND 
SIGNIFICATION, TOGETHER WITH VARIOUS USEFUL TABLES. 



V 
By GEORGE S. COLE. 



• 



1892. $ ° 



r= 



/? 






Entered according' to the Act of Congress in the year 1892, by George S. Cole, in 
the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



ALL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES RESERVED. 



VI. B. CONKEY COMPANY, 

CHICAGO, 
PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 




'To please the flesh a thousand arts coratena. 
The miser's heaps of g-olc', ihe figur'd yest, 
The gem, the siifc worm and the purple dye, 
By toil acquir'd, promote no other end." 




PREFACE. 

In presenting to the Dry Goods trade its first Dictionary 
(of American origin) the compiler feels confident that the 
time and labor devoted to make the work accurate and com- 
plete will commend it to the favorable consideration of every- 
one connected with the business. 

In the retail, wholesale, and manufacturing branches of the 
Dry Goods trade, within the boundaries of the United States, 
there are over one million people engaged; in point of money 
invested, number of hands employed, and annual volume of 
business done, it easily ranks first in importance among all 
the industries which have grown and prospered since the 
beginning of civilization in the Western world. Indeed, the 
Dry Goods trade of the United States has more money in- 
vested in it than any other two interests in the country — esti- 
mated at the enormous sum of $20,000, 000,000, while the next 
in order, the railroad, has only between $10,000,000,000 and 
$12,000,000,000. The part which the manufacture and sale of 
Dry Goods, in the term's widest meaning, has had in the 
building up of our national prosperity occupies no secondary 
position. It without doubt forms the greatest feature of our 
Nation's commercial life. The Dry Goods store is found in 
every village and hamlet, and is the center of trade and barter 
in all rural communities. In the larger towns and cities the 
Dry Goods interest predominates in the same manner as in the 
smaller, forming by far the most important department of 
business, and aiding to a certain extent in sustaining all other 
branches of trade. The various lines form a business of such 
magnitude, involve so much capital, and is in every way so 
intimately interwoven with the varied wants of our modern 
civilization that it seems remarkable, in a country like ours, 
that not even a classification of the kinds of our textile fabrics 
nor the modern methods employed in their production has ever 
been attempted, to say nothing of a systematic history of them 



That there should be such neglect of textile history, rich as 
it is in incident and importance, when costume and popular 
customs are so closely studied, is passing strange. Very much 
of the true history of the people, high and low, can be traced 
through their indulgence in fine fabrics, to which mankind, 
women included, have ever been prone. But this aspect of trade 
and manufactures is rarely mentioned, except as glossed over 
by ponderous encyclopcedic works, whose trade articles when 
relieved of the obscuring folds of verbal drapery yield but a 
scant amount of actual information. 

The plan of the "Dictionary of Dry Goods" includes 
several objects, which, briefly stated., are: the proper descrip- 
tion of all textile fabrics and manufactured articles; the 
peculiarities which distinguish a fabric and by which it may be 
identified; the method of weaving or manufacture; the origin 
of the names of all fabrics, with the history and literature of 
the subject; the definition of terms, words and phrases which 
have only a trade application, and which have sprung up with 
the development of the business in the nineteenth century; 
and the import duties under the new tariff on all goods, raw 
or manufactured. The Dictionary is designed to be a practi- 
cally complete and comprehensive record of all fabrics which 
are in general use at the present time, together with full ex- 
planations of the modern process of carding, spinning, dyeing, 
weaving, knitting, netting, bleaching, and felting, constituting 
a book for general reference by merchants and clerks. 

No labor or expense has been spared to make the work 
serve the purposes for which it is intended; the statements, 
figures, and tables which are presented are given only on the 
faith of recognized authorities, and in reducing the chaos of 
particulars relating to the history, literature, manufacture, 
sale, and distinguishing characteristics of textile fabrics strict 
and careful attention has been paid to accuracy. 

If the Dictionary will aid the apprentice to more fully 
understand the essential points of his chosen occupation, or 
furnish the more experienced salesman with correct informa- 
tion upon subjects of which he is in ignorance, the hope that 
inspired its preparation will be amply realized. 

Geo. S. Cole. 



A COMPLETE 

DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Abb Wool. In wool-sorting one of the two qualities known as coarse 
abb and jine abb; the lowest quality of wool used in the spinning of wor- 
sted yarns. 

Abnet. [From Hebrew ab?iet, a belt.] In Jewish antiquity a girdle of 
fine linen. In surgery a bandage resembling a priest's girdle. 

Acca. [From Acre, a city in Syria, whence it was first obtained.] A 
rich figured silk fabric decorated with gold, in use during the fourteenth 
century. 

Adulteration of Fabrics. Woolens have been for years past largely 
adulterated with refuse fibers called "shoddy and mungo;" also known 
under the terms of "extracts" and "flocks." It is truly wonderful the man- 
ner and to the degree which this dust can be mixed with chemicals in order 
to give it sufficient tenuity for spinning. The practice is now more largely 
in vogue than ever, for there is hardly a yard of cheap cloth that does not 

7 



8 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. AGR 

contain it. Shoddy, as originally used, was merely the fluff or waste from 
the looms, but now consists of any kind of woolen rubbish, as old blankets, 
hose, and cast-off clothing pulled to pieces in a machine called the "devil." 
[See Shoddy.] There is yet another kind of refuse called "extract," which 
is also employed in the manufacture of cheap goods. It consists of the 
wool obtained from the rags of mixed goods, that is, old rags'which have a 
cotton, linen or silk warp. In order to separate the wool from the cotton 
or linen, the rags are immersed in sulphuric acid, which destroys the unde- 
sirable linen or cotton, but leaves the wool intact. To separate wool from 
silk the rags are given a bath in cold nitric acid which completely dissolves 
the silk but does not affect the wool. 

Calico and low grades of muslin are often adulterated with size and 
china clay, the object beins: to give them increased weight and substance. 
Up to about thirty years ago the "sizing" of cotton goods was effected with 
a mixture of flour, paste and tallow, by which means the tenacity of the 
warp was increased, and the friction of weaving was lessened. To effect 
this, twenty per cent of size was used; but in 1862, when on account of the 
war our cotton famine began to be felt and the long-fibered cotton grew 
scarce, it was found necessary to give tenacity to the warp threads made of 
short fiber by using more "size." In this manner as much as from fifty to 
ninety per cent of size has got to be used, the greater part of it being china 
clay. Cheap calico and muslin are also largely impregnated with lime, 
and a cloud of dust will fly out of such fabrics when torn. 

Silks are also made heavier and stouter by the incorporation of dye- 
stuffs used expressly for this purpose. These are termed "weighted" or 
"loaded" silks. [See Silk]. 

Agra Gauze. A cobwebby fabric woven of gossamer silk threads. It 
is transparent as veiling, light as air, yet firm and strong. Its consistency 
may be realized from the fact that a piece four yards long and fourty-four 
inches wide, can be enclosed in the palm of the hand. 

Aida Canvas (a '-da canvas.) A species of canvas woven of pure 
linen, and frequently called "Java." and "Fancy Oatmeal." It is made in 
widths varying from 18 to 54 inches, in all the colors. A cotton canvas of 
the same weave is known by different names, such as Basket, Con- 
naught, etc. 

Aigrette (a'-gret or a-gret').. A French word used to denote the 
plume or feathery tuft on the heads of several varieties of birds, as the 
heron. Hence the term came to be used to designate the long, delicate, 
white feathers which being stuck upright in a lady's head-dress, are cal- 
culated to give a majestic appearance to the person. More recently the 
usage has been still further extended, and any head-dress bearing a simil- 
arity to a plume, even a bouquet of flowers fastened with a brooch, is 
termed an aigrette. 



ALA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 9 

Alamode (al'-a-mode). A thin, glossy silk used for hoods and 
scarfs. 

Alaska. The name given to a variety of sandal-shaped overshoes, 
without fastenings of any sort, having cloth uppers and rubber soles. 
[See Rubbers.] 

Albatross (al'-ba-tross). A soft untwilled woolen dress fabric; 
properly a soft fine bunting, known by the various names of "Satin Moss," 
"Vicuna," (the stoutest make), "Snowflake," (which is fluked), and "Antique 
Cloth." It is of an irregular weave, which produces a surface-appearance 
similar to momie cloth or cretonne. 

Albert-cloth. An all-wool material the two sides of which are of 
different colors and patterns, each side finished so that no lining is required; 
used chiefly for men's reversible overcoats. 

Alexis (a-lex'-is.) A style of fur cap for men, distinguished by the 
crown being made long and deep so that it may be pulled down over the 
ears and neck, and finished without roll or vizor. 

Alizarin (al-i-za'-rin). [From al-i-za-ri, the commercial name of 
madder in Asia.] A peculiar red coloring matter formerly obtained from 
the madder plant [see Turkey-red.] At present alizarin is an artificial 
madder-dye obtained from coal-tar, and which in point of commercial 
importance far exceeds any of the other 400 shades of colors derived from 
that source. [See Dyeing, Calico-Printing.] 

Alpaca. The wooly hair of an animal of the camel tribe, which inhabit 
the mountainous districts of Chili and Peru. In appearance this wool is 
fine, white and glossy, from two to six inches in length. It retains that 
peculiar gloss and beauty after being woven into textures, which particu- 
larly distinguish it from other species of wool. Alpaca is shipped to this 
country in bales of seventy pounds each, and is assorted on arrival into 
eight qualities, each suitable for a particular grade of goods. 

The earliest manufacture of the dust-defying Alpaca fabric was in 
Bradford, England, in 1832 by Sir Titus Sault, at which time the fabric 
was made with a worsted warp and Alpaca weft, and very heavy. At the 
present time it is known as a thin, shiny, double-fold dress fabric, usually 
black, with a fine cotton warp. 

Altar Cloth. A general term, formerly designating the closed case 
of linen used for covering an altar, and which was never allowed to be 
removed except for washing ; later, temporary coverings, whether of white 
linen or of rich brocaded cloth or embroidery. Ordinarily at present altar 
cloths are not used bv the Protestant churches except at communion 
services. 

Aluminum (al-u'-mi-num.)— An extremely light metal made from Ice- 
land spar. Aside from its lightness and strength, it is malleable, does not 
rust, is as beautiful as silver, and is much more abundant in its native state 



10 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. ALU 

than any metal in use. While Iceland spar is the mineral from which it 
has been mostly obtained, it is a constituent of clay and other earth, and 
prevails almost anywhere. The statement has been made that it composes 
more than a twentieth part of the crust of the globe. The difficulty is to 
secure it in a pure state at a moderate cost. But within the last half cen- 
tury its cost has been reduced from over $30 a pound to less than $1. In a 
series of tests made by the United States naval officers at Watertown, Mass., 
a tensile strength of 90,000 pounds to the square inch was shown, which is 
largely in excess of anything before developed. The transverse strength 
of the metal was found to be 6,600 pounds to the square inch, a result that 
has only been equaled by the finest quality of crucible steel. Busy brains 
and hands are constantly at work to reduce the expense of manufacturing 
the pure metal, and as the incentive to success is very powerful, their labors 
are not likely to be discontinued. If they prove satisfactory, as there is 
reason to hope they will, a wonderful change in the line of notions and 
fancy goods will have been entered upon. Aluminum is lighter than wood 
and takes a polish like burnished silver. It not only does not rust, either 
in air or water, but retains its polish for an indefinite period. Transform 
in imagination the counters and shelving of stores, or even the fronts of the 
buildings themselves, the railings, balconies and floors to shining silver, 
and a glimpse may be had of the coming effect of aluminum by the qual- 
ities now claimed for it. The like has not been pictured since St. John 
spoke of the golden streets and pearly gates of the New Jerusalem. 

American Cloth. A name given in England to a cotton cloth, pre- 
pared with a glazed and varnished surface to imitate Morocco leather, 
used for carriage trimming; known in the United States as enameled or 
oil cloth. 

Angola. A diaper-woven cotton cloth with a fine rough face, some- 
what resembling a momie-weave. It is usually a cream color, and is em- 
ployed for embroidery purposes. 

Angora Wool or Mohair. Of all animals whose fleece is largely used 
in the manufacture of fabrics, there is probably none so little known as 
the Angora goat. And when Mohair dress goods, Mohair plush or 
Mohair laces are mentioned it is exceedingly unlikely that one dry-goods 
salesman out of ten can tell whence comes the raw material out of which 
the goods are manufactured. 

These goats derive their name from Angora, a city in Asia Minor, 217 
miles southeast of Constantinople. There is no historical mention of 
them previous to the 16th century, and it was not until 1820 that Mohair 
became a steady article of import into England. The Angora goat should 
not be confounded with our common goat, nor with the Cashmere goat, 
which are quite different species. The fleece of the Angora is soft and 
silky and the whitest known to the trade, elastic and wiry in character, 
covering the whole body and the greater part of the legs with close-matted 



ANG COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 11 

ringlets, which attain a length of 4 to 5 inches. The fleece is composed 
of two kinds of hair; that next to the skin being short and coarse, the other 
being curly and lustrous, both however, being totally devoid of felting 
properties. The goats are sheared in the early spring, and the average 
yield per goat is about 2% pounds. The best quality comes from Constan- 
tinople. The care of these goats is the chief industry of Turkish people in 
the Angora districts. Each farmer possesses not to exceed 20 or 30 to 
which he gives the greatest care, in many instances living under the same 
roof with them. They are washed and curried several times a week, for 
greater the care, the more hair is produced. The fineness of the fleece is 
due in a large measure to the climate and soil. The amount of wool pro- 
duced by the Angora district amounts to about 5,250,000 pounds yearly, but 
of this only about 1,000,000 pounds can be picked out for the finest grade of 
upholstery and car plushes. In the year 1845, the increasing demand for. 
and value of Mohair stimulated endeavors to acclimatize the Angora goat 
in other regions. All European endeavors having failed on account of the 
extremely damp and uncongenial climate of that conntry, in 1849 Dr. 
J. P. Davis imported some flocks to America. They are now found in large 
numbers both in the South and far West, New Mexico, California and Ore- 
gon. It is only in high altitudes and dry atmosphere that the flocks will 
thrive. The annual product of American fleeces averages about 700,000 
pounds. The climate and soil of New Mexico is especially favorable for 
Angora flocks and there they multiply rapidly, the ewes always bearing two 
and frequently three kids at a litter, twice a year. The American Angoras, 
however, are not the pure breed, and consequently produce an inferior 
quality of Mohair. The Turkish government issued an edict many years 
ago against the exportation of these goats, hence the American raisers are 
obliged to replenish their flocks with Angoras from other districts in Asia. 
Whether the United States can produce Mohair of the best quality is yet to 
be determined, for it is well known that certain localties possess specific 
qualities for the production of wool or hair of a distinct character. This 
was shown many years ago, when the rage for bright-haired dress goods 
was so marked as to suggest that the supply of bright-haired wool was in- 
adequate to the demand. The peculiarities of a district for growing wool 
or hair of a certain character are hard to explain, but experience has 
shown that a locality will produce to advantage only one class of wool or 
hair. This is illustrated by the history of the growth of what are known 
to the trade as " lustre wools." Of all the wide area on the earth's surface 
that produces wool, no localities produce wools of pure lustre except cer- 
tain districts in England, comprising the counties of York, Nottinghan, 
Lincoln, Leicester and Northumberland. These will produce bright wool 
and no other. It is not alone in the breed of sheep raised there for if this 
breed is taken elsewhere from its own pasture ground, the character of the 
wool deterioates, and after the first year ceases to be sold as lustre wool. 
On the other hand if any breed of sheep are taken to the favored lustre dis 



12 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. ANG 

tricts to be wintered and shorn, the fleece possesses almost as much luster 
as that of the sheep that has been raised there. Numerous attempts to pro- 
duce luster wool, made in what are regarded as the best districts i:i the 
United States for wool growing, have failed to maintain in the sheep those 
qualities which in its original home produced the finest lustre wool. To use 
the phrase of the trade, the "breed grows out," and the sheep soonbccome 
identical, as regards the fleece, with all others that have been reared in the 
locality. What is true of one animal fiber is true of others, and while there 
is no doubt that the Angora goat will live and thrive in the United States, 
the question to be decided by experience is, whether it will in any other than 
its native place produce its characteristically beautiful, silky, lustrous 
fleece. 

Mohair, as the hair or wool of the Angora goat is called, is a brilliant, 
elastic, tough, wiry fibre of enormous durability, and, owing to its elas- 
ticity, is well adapted for pile fabrics, such as plush, carriage and 
lap robes, or in braids, bindings, shoe laces and other purposes, the number 
of which is only limited by the supply of raw material. It is also used for 
making Utrecht velvet, or furniture plush, for the upholstering of railway 
cars, etc. The mohair used in the manufacture of seal plushes for ladies' 
cloaks, is made from the first clip in the second year of the animal, and is 
hard to obtain, selling at Constantinople at seventy-five cents per pound. 
Until the last few years England held an entire monopoly of the spin- 
ning and manufacture of mohair, but after many attemps our manufac- 
turers have succeeded in making goods that not only compare favorably, 
but excel those of the bes. English makes. [See Mohair.] 

Angora Cashmere. A term employed to denote a certain kind of 
cloth made in imitation of camels'-hair cloth, which is made of the long, 
white hair of the Angora goat of Turkey. Angora Cashmere is twilled like 
common cashmere; is of a light quality, and in width 27, 48 and 54 inches. 

Aniline. One of the very numerous products of the distillation of coal 
tar. The readiness with which aniline, in certain of its reactions, produced 
very brilliant colors was known to chemists since 1826. Up to the year 
1858, however it possessed nothing beyond a scientific interest, and had it 
not been for the untiring industry of Mr. W H. Perkin, dyers would proba- 
bly have gone on in the good old way of dyeing fabrics with the extracts of 
plants and tree-bark until the end of time. In 1858 Mr. Perkin obtained a 
patent for the production of a dye stuff derived from aniline, which soon 
became well-known as mauve, or "Perkin's purple," as well as by various 
other names. The discovery of Mr. Perkin formed the turning point in the 
history of aniline, and was indeed the beginning of a great revolution in the 
arts and manufactures connected with the dyeing of textile fabrics. The 
manufacture of aniline dyes was first begun in France. It immediately 
spread to all industrial centres, and became one of the most eagerly inves- 
tigated of all commercial undertakings. A rapid succession of patents 



ANG COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 13 

were applied for and obtained; new processes and combinations were con- 
tinually being projected, and a great variety of colors were tried, with more 
or less success, as commercial substances. The activity of scientific re- 
rearch kept pace with the energy of manufacturing enterprise, resulting in 
a rapid improvement of processes, decrease in the cost of manufacture, 
and a great increase in the beauty and tinctorial effect of the dyes pro- 
duced. At the present time every color, and all tints and shades of colors, 
are produced from aniline, which in turn is derived primarily from coal-tar 
and, while the processes employed and the combinations formed are very 
numerous, the names under which the dye-stuffs are sold must be said to be 
endless. All shades and sorts of aniline dyes communicate a permanent 
color to wool and silk, but only produce on vegetable fibres — cotton, jute, 
linen, etc. — a fugitive, easily-washed-out stain. But in order to produce the 
best results with silk and wool, dyers need good soft water, so that every 
fibre will be made to absorb all the color possible, in order to make them 
indellible. With hard water this can not be accomplished, and in some 
places dyers have been obliged to sink artesian wells at a heavy outlay. 
About the time of the French-Austrian war, in 1859, a coal-tar dye was in- 
troduced into commerce which became known as aniline red, or magenta, 
from the battle fought on the day of its invention. Aniline colors are em- 
ployed in the industrial arts for numerous other purposes besides their great 
use as dyeing materials. Violet ink, and other fancy colored inks, are pre- 
pared from them. They are used by paper manufacturers for tinting 
pulps, and for the superficial staining of finished paper. They are likewise 
used in the printing of wall papers, in the preparation ot lithographic inks, 
and to some extent for water colors. They are largely employed as color- 
ing materials in perfumery, fancy soaps and cosmetics, besides having 
many other.minor applications. Concerning these dyes, Dr. Hofmann, an 
Englishman, to whom the industry is much indebted, wrote, in 1862, while 
it was yet in its infancy, "Instead of disbursing her annual millions for these 
substances, England will, beyond question, at no distant day become her- 
self the greatest color-producing country in the world; nay, by the very 
strangest of revolutions, she may ere long send her coal derived blues to 
indigo-growing India; her distilled crimson to cochineal-producing Mexico, 
and her fossil substitutes for quercitron and safflower to China, Japan and 
other countries whence the articles are now derived." It is scarcely needful 
to say that these bold anticipations made thirty years ago have already 
been fully realized. 

Applique (ap-pli-ka'). In modern dress and upholstery this term signifies 
applied or sewed on. Thus, the gimp or pattern of soiled lace may be sewed 
upon a new ground, or embroidered flowers may be secured to new silk; in 
such case the pattern or ornament is said to be applique, and the whole 
applique work. More generally, said of one material fixed upon another 
in ornamental work. Point Applique is point lace, in which the design, 



14 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. APR 

after having been separately made, has been applied to the net which 
forms the foundation. 

Apron. The apron dates far back. Ever since over first parents ages 
and ages ago sewed fig leaves into aprons to conceal their nakedness, this 
style of garment has been a la mode. The Greeks and Romans were 
famous for their richly embroidered aprons. In the time of Queen 
Charlotte of England, Beau Brummel showed his dislike to them by 
deliberately removing the apron of a duchess and flinging it behind 
a sofa at a ball; and Mary, Queen of Scots, history asserts, left behind her 
when she was beheaded nearly one hundred aprons of various hues and 
fashions. An English illustration made in the 13th century shows a 
blacksmith at work in an apron similar in shape to that still worn by men 
of that class. At that time they were known under the name of "barm- 
skins." The exact origin of the word apron is unsettled, although it is 
supposed to be derived from the French naperon, a large cloth, whence 
also our word napkin, a small cloth. We call them by many names now, 
the fig leaves of Adam and Eve having developed by slow degrees into a 
valuable series of pin-a-fores, suitable for the infant in arms, or the man 
and woman to whom labor is the natural result having come into existence. 

Arctics. A heavy variety of rubber overshoes, distinguished by hav- 
ing a cloth top which buckles up over the ankles, rubber heels and soles, 
and a nappy wool lining. [See Rubbers, India Rubber.] 

Areophane. A variety of crape, but considerably thinner than the ordi- 
nary kind. It was formerly used chiefly for bonnet trimmings, and quil- 
lings, and is now to some extent employed for ball costumes. It is made 
in all colors, and is cut like all crape, on the bias. [See Crepe de Chine.] 

Armozeen (ar-mo-zeen ' ). [From French armozsm.] A kind of taffeta 
or plain silk used for women's dresses in the 18th century and earlier. 

Armure or Royal Armure. [French for "armor".] The word is sugges- 
tive of the style of weaving. In feudal times a»n armor was worn by men 
made of small metal plates and lapping over one another like fish scales, 
so as to be flexible with every movement of the body. The weave of 
armure silk dress fabric is an imitation of this armor, the surface ridge of 
the pattern always forming a small diamond or other angled figure. There 
is also Satin Armure and Armure Bosphore, this latter being reversible. 
Royal Armure is heavier than ordinary dress silk; the widths vary from 22 
to 24 inches. 

Arras (ar'-as). Arras cloth takes its name from the town of Arras, 
situated in the north of France. In the fourteenth century this place was 
the chief seat of French tapestry manufacture, for both quality and quan- 
tity. Hence, in time, the term Arras came to signify any sort of tapestry, 
wherever made. [See Tapestry.] 

Arrasene (ar-a-sene ' ). A sort of cord made with a central thread 



ASB COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 15 

and a thick velvet-like pile of wool or silk fastened round it. It is used in 
raised embroidery work. 

Asbestos (as-bes'-tos). A fibrous variety of a mineral substance, 
composed of separable filaments, with a silky luster. Its fibres are some- 
times flexible and elastic, sometimes stiff and brittle, and when reduced to 
a powder are soft to the touch. It is incombustible, and the fine qualities 
have been spun and woven into gloves, shrouds, cloth for firemen's suits, 
lamp-wicks, roofs, floors and for various other fire-proofing purposes. Its 
feeble consistency has always been the chief obstacle to its general use 
among textile fabrics. It is mined in Canada, Vermont, Virginia, South 
Carolina and on Staten Island, New York. 

Astrakhan (as ' -tra-kan). [From Astrakhana, a city and province in 
Russia.] Originally in Russia this was a name given to skins having a 
short, curly wool— particularly the pelts obtained from young lambs from 
the province of Astrakhana. At present Astrakhan cloth is silk or worsted 
material with a long and closely curled pile, in imitation of the fur above 
mentioned, and is used for ladies' cloaks, dress trimming and men's cloth- 
ing. Astrakhan wool trimming is made in 10-yard lengths, and in 3-inch, 
4-inch and 5-inch widths, the price increasing with the width. It is a 
durable and showy trimming. 

Aune. A French long measure of 1% yards, used chiefly for cloth. It 
is derived from Latin alna, forearm. [See Measures, Barege.] 



B 

Baby Caps. The styles of baby caps are originated in Paris and other 
fashion centres of Europe, and are copied in this country the following 
season. Those not initiated in the mysteries of this bee-hive industry can 
scarcely form a correct idea of the importance it plays in the manufactur- 
ing interests of this country. New York and Philadelphia supply the coun- 
try with more than seven-eighths of the goods consumed. New York takes 
precedence in sales of the cheaper grade of goods, while Philadelphia is 
noted for the better class. It is a current saying amongst the trade that 
Philadelphia is as famous for "baby caps as Connecticut is for corsets." 
The baby cap manufacture represents in the two cities a capital of $1,000,- 
000, employing over 1,500 girls, averaging $7 per week, making $10,500 
weekly outlay of wages. The estimated output amounts to over 5,000,000 
caps annnally. [See Hats and Caps.] 

Baize. [Spanish plural for day.] In the 16th century a light woolen 
fabric of a brownish-red or bay color (whence its name) was manufactured 
in Europe and called bay-cloth. At present, baize is a fine woolen stuff 
with a close nap on one side, dyed in plain colors, usually green or red. 
It is chiefly used for linings, desk and table covers and curtains, but 
when first introduced, in 1541, it was a much thinner and finer material, 



16 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BAL 

and was used for clothing; specifically, in theatres the plain curtain low- 
ered at the end of the play. 

Balayeuse (bah ' -lay-yuhz). [French feminine of balayeur, a sweeper.] 
A frilling of lace or muslin which lines the extreme edge of a dress skirt to 
keep the train clean as it sweeps along the floor; a kind of trimming on the 
bottom of gowns; by extension a frilling of any material, either in white or 
black, sewn under tke edge of a dress skirt to keep it from wearing out and 
from being soiled from sweeping the floor. 

Balbriggan. A descriptive term applied to cotton knitted fabrics, 
either hosiery or underwear, and referring to the color, signifying that the 
articles are brown or unbleached. The term is especially applied to those 
fabrics or articles knitted of smooth, level yarns, and possessed of but 
little nap; so called from the town of Balbriggan, County Dublin, Ireland, 
where brown knitted hosiery was first produced. 

Baleen (ba-lene'). The horny "teeth" of whales; whalebone in its 
natural state. [See Whalebone. J 

Balloon-net. A kind of woven lace in which the weft threads are 
twisted in a peculiar manner around the warp in fanciful imitation of 
the ropes enclosing the gas reservoir of a balloon. 

Balmoral (bal-mor'-al). A name given to various articles of dress, 
possessing unusual strength and weight. Specifically, a term applied to a 
variety of ladies' cheap cotton skirts, distinguished by not being furnished 
with a waist-band nor hemmed at the bottom. They were originally made 
of wool, dyed red with fancy black stripes, and intended to be displayed 
below the skirt of the dress, which was looped up. They were first worn 
by the daughters of Queen Victoria in 1860, during the visits to their royal 
residence at Balmoral, Scotland, hence the name. Balmoral boots or shoes 
are those that lace up in front, worn by both men and women; usually 
abbreviated in trade "bal." or "bals." [See Boots and Shoes.] 

Band. A flexible material, used to bind or bend around anything; as 
a hat-band. Also a border or strip -on an article of dress serving to 
strengthen it or to confine it to any desired shape; as a waistband, a wrist- 
band, a neckband. 

Bandana (ban-dan '-a). [From a Hindoo word Bandhnn, which 
means " a mode of dyeing, in which the cloth is tied in different places to 
prevent the parts from receiving the dye."] A cheap cotton (sometimes of 
silk) handkerchief for men, with a red ground, ornamented with various 
colored spots. The cloth is first dyed a solid Turkey red, and the white 
pattern made by discharging the red with bleaching liquor in a powerful 
press. If other colors than white are to appear on the handkerchief, they 
are printed afterward upon the white spots discharged for that purpose. 
The pattern to be discharged is cut out on two metal plates, Of the full size 
of the handkerchief. A dozen or more handkerchiefs are laid between 



BAN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 17 

these plates, and then the pressure applied; the liquor being run on the 
uppermost plate, which is grooved on the upper side to receive it. The 
pressure on the cloth to make clean work (that is, to prevent the spreading 
of the liquor) is enormous, often exceeding 500 and 600 tons. The bleach- 
ing liquor destroys the red color in all those parts where the plates allow 
it to circulate, thus producing the ornamental figure. Bandanas are made 
in sizes from 12 inches square to 24 inches square, the price increasing with 
the sizes at even inche 

Bangle* [Hindoo Bangri, a bracelet of glass]. An ornamental ring 
worn upon the arms and ankles in India, and upon the legs and fastened in 
the ears, nose and lips in Africa. In the limited state at present signifying 
a bracelet without a clasp, a ring-bracelet generally with small ornaments 
suspended from it. 

Bank-credit. A credit that merchants often have with a bank, by 
which, on proper security given to the bank, the merchant receives liberty 
to draw to a certain extent beyond his deposits that may be agreed upon. 

Bankrupt. The breaking up of a merchant's business, due to his in- 
ability to meet his obligations. In modern law, any person who upon his 
own petition or that of his creditors is adjudged insolvent by a bankruptcy 
court. His estate may be administered by an assignee or trustee under the 
direction of the court, for the benefit of his creditors. 

Bankruptcy Laws. The legal regulations under which the property 
of an insolvent may be distributed among his creditors, with the double 
object of enforcing a complete discovery and an even distribution of the 
property, and of discharging the debtor from his obligations and from being 
molested in the future by his creditors. Formerly only a merchant or a 
trader could be made a bankrupt under the Bankruptcy Laws, all other 
persons who were unable to meet their debts being termed insolvents, but 
this distinction is now abolished in the United States, and all debtors come 
under the same head. Congress has the sole power of enacting Bankruptcy 
Laws which shall be uniform throughout all the states. Those laws are 
administered by the United States Court. Involuntary Bankruptcy is ad- 
judged on the petition of creditors, showing cause why the debtor should 
not be allowed to continue in possession of his assets. Voluntary Bankruptcy 
is adjudged on the petition of the debtor, indicating his desire to surrender 
his assets and be discharged. [See Inventory, Schedule.] 

Barcelona Silk Kerchiefs . These kerchiefs are named from Bar-ce- 
lo ' -na, in Spain, from whence they were originally brought, though now 
all made in Great Britain; there are four varieties: black, plain colors, 
turban checks and fancies. The black measure from twenty-six inches 
square to seven-quarters. The turban checks were originally made for 
head dresses and are about twenty inches square. 

Barege (ba-razh'). [So called from Bareges, a town in France, where 



18 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BAR 

it was first made.] Barege veiling is woven with an extremely fine silk 
warp and a fluffy woolen weft, thirty inches wide. It is imported from 
France in several qualities, the length of the pieces being determined by 
meters or "aunes." An aune in English measure is IX yards. [See 
Veiling.] 

Barras (bar '-as). A coarse linen fabric imported by this country in 
the 17th century from Holland, used for shirting, linen pants, vests, etc. 

Barrow-coat. A square or oblong piece of flannel, wrapped around 
an infant's body below the arms, the part extending beyond the feet being 
turned up and pinned. 

Barter. To traffic or trade by exchanging one commodity for another, 
in distinction from buying and selling for money. 

Basket- weave . A style of weaving which produces a pattern re- 
sembling the plaited-work of a basket. 

Basse-lisse (bas-lese'). Woven with the warp in the usual horizontal 
position, as distinguished from that which is woven with the warp placed 
in a perpendicular, and described as haute-lisse. 

Bast. The strong inner fibrous bark of various trees, especially a 
species of linden, of which the Russia matting of commerce is made. 
Cuba bast is used for tieing up bunches of cigars, etc. [See Fiber.] 

Bastard cloth. A cloth presumably imitating a more expensive 
material. 

Basting-Machine. A sewing-machine used for basting together pieces 
of fabrics, to make a continuous piece for bleaching, dyeing scouring etc. 

Bat. See Batting. 

Bathing Suits and Trunks. Bathing " trunks" are usually made of 
knitted cotton or worsted, and shaped to cover the loins and trunk of the 
body. Bathing "suits" are of various shapes and made of many materials. 
Surah silk of thick quality is used extensively. It is claimed that it does 
not retain as much water as flannel, and that it does not cling so closely to 
the figure. The medium quality bathing suits are manufactured of flannel 
and of a coarse wiry cheviot. The more modest suits are made with the 
waist and drawers in one, cut in continuous pieces or attached to the same 
belt; a seperate skirt reaching to the knees is then buttoned on to this 
belt. The drawers fall below the knees and are quite wide with rubber in 
the hem to draw them into shape. Jersey suits are also manufactured and 
these do not shrink. The waist and skirt are all in one piece in this variety, 
and the skirt is made full. The drawers are close fitting like equestrian 
tights and have stockings woven with them — but how and where they are 
fastened no man has ever found out. 

Bating. The process of steeping hides and skins in an alkaline batli 
to separate the oil and fleshy matter, and render them soft and pliable, pre- 
paratory to tanning. 



BAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 19 

Batiste. A variety of cotton muslin, having a good deal of dress, 
closely resembling lawn, the only difference being that batiste is slightly 
heavier, though in both materials the pattern is printed on in the same man- 
ner; used chiefly for summer dresses, lining and trimmings. Batiste is also 
the French name for cambric, a fine linen muslin made in France and used 
for dresses, linings and trimmings. The fabric derives its name from M. 
Baptiste a linen weaver of Cambray, Flanders, who invented it in the 13th 
century. 

Batting. Raw cotton or wool prepared in thick, but lightly-matted 
lapped sheets, used chiefly in the manufacture of comforts, bed covers, and 
mattresses. Also called bat and batts. 

Baudekin (ba' -de-kin.) A rich embroidered or brocaded silk fabric 
woven originally with a warp of gold thread. Called in the 17th century, 
cloth of Baudekin. It is not found in use after the 17th century. 

Bay eta (ba-ya'-ta./ A common kind of coarse Spanish baize. [See 

BAIZE.] 

Beads. [From Anglo-Saxon bede, a prayer.] Small perforated orna- 
ments, of round or oblong shape, worn by women in necklaces, bracelets 
and head-dresses; and also for ornamenting slippers, purses, watch guards 
and a variety of fancy articles. Beads are used by Catholics to keep them 
right as to the number of their prayers, one bead of the rosary being drop- 
ped every time a prayer is said. Beads are made of gold, diamond, amber, 
pearl, coral, garnet, steel, paste, wood, etc., but the greatest quantity are of 
glass manufacture. They were manufactured, much in the same form as 
now, by the Phcenecians more than 3,000 years ago. At present, they form 
a favorite article of traffic with all savage tribes and nations, often being 
the only medium of exchange in bartering with them. The manufacture of 
glass beads is simple. A short, thick rod of colored glass is made with a 
hole through the centre of it. This is drawn out in a heated state by two 
men running in opposite directions, and by this very long tubes are pro- 
duced of the size of the beads required. These rods are chipped into short 
uniform pieces of the length of the bead. The holes in the pieces are then 
filled with sand and ashes by shaking them up together in a bowl. This is 
done to prevent welding when heated at the next operation. This consists 
of transferring them to a heated iron pan and agitated until the sharp 
angles are worn off and they assume a smooth, rounded form. Taken out, 
their bodies washed and cleaned to separate the ashes and sand, and strung 
by children, they form glass beads. In commerce they are known as the 
hollow, the tube and the bugle. The hollow are the most expensive kind, 
the price varying from 25 cents to $2.50 per bunch of twelve strands. Com- 
mon black beads are sold from ten to twenty-five cents per pound. 

Beam-roll. In cloth manufacture, the spool-shaped roll upon which 
the warp-threads are wound preparatory to being woven. 



20 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BEA 

Bearing-Cloth. A cloth with which a child is covered when carried 
to church to be baptised, often richly embroidered ; also called a christ- 
ening robe. 

Bearer. See Furs. 

Beaver Cloth. A thick woolen cloth used for garments by both sexes. 
The weave is similar to doeskin. Beaver cloth is always fulled to a con- 
siderable degree, and has the wrong side finished with a soft thick nap ; 
much in demand previous to 1880 for overcoats. [See Woolen.] 

Beaver Hat. The modern stiff silk hat was commonly called a 
"beaver" until shortly after the civil war. The first high stiff hats were 
made of beaver fur. [See Hats and Caps.] 

Beaverteen. A strong twilled cotton fabric for men's wear, napped on 
wrong side ; similar to moleskin but heavier ; dyed in solid colors of gray 
and tan. 

Bed-Clothes. The coverings used on beds; sheets, blankets, quilts, 
slips, etc., collectively. 

Bedford Cord. A particular style of weave found usually in dress 
fabrics, consisting of heavy ribs running lengthwise of the fabric; similar 
to the weave of cotton pique. [See Corded Fabrics.] 

Bed-gown. A night-gown or night-dress; a kind of jacket like a dress- 
ing-sack, worn in Scotland by women of the working-class, generally with 
a colored flannel petticoat. 

Bedizen (be-diz'-en). To deck or dress out, especially in a tawdry 
manner or with vulgar finery. 

Bed-linen. Sheets, pillow-cases and bolster slips, originally always of 
linen, but now usually of cotton. 

Bed Pocket. A small bag, in use during the early part of the present 
century, hung at the head of the bed at night in which to put away things 
which might be wanted before morning, or as a receptacle for the watch, 
purse, handkerchief, etc., in place of poking them under the pillow. 
A hundred years back, bed pockets were used quite extensively. It is 
customary yet in the South, to provide visitors, especially fussy people and 
particularly old maids, with bed pockets. They are arranged in fanciful 
shapes, and hang by cords or ribbons from the bed-stead. They are 
usually embroidered with the injunction to the burglar, "Step softly and 
don't disturb the sleeper." 

Bed Quilt. A wadded and quilted covering for a bed; as a bed spread 
or comfort, as distinguished from a counterpane or an ornamented cover- 
let. 

Bed Tick. A case of strong cotton or linen material for containing 
the feathers or straw of abed. Nine yards of 32-inch ticking is required 
for the manufacture of a bed-tick. 



BEE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 21 

Beetling' Machine. A machine for "finishing" linen or cotton cloth by 
hammering it; for this purpose heavy wooden blocks are used, which are 
raised in succession and permitted to fall by their own weight. Some- 
times called "mangling-machine." The object is to render the surface of 
the cloth of an even and uniform thickness. 

Beige (bazh) [from It. bigio — gray.] In France in the early part of the 
present century there was a sort of twilled dress fabric woven with a gray 
cotton warp and an unbleached and undyed woolen weft, called Beige. At 
present in this country it is one of the few dress fabrics which has not de- 
parted from the original manufacture. Although it is now dyed to some 
extent, it still remains a twilled serge-like material woven with cotton warp 
and worsted weft, dyed in shades of gray, drab and slate; sometimes called 
debeige. There are several other definitions to "beige" besides the beige 
proper as a fabric. It may be coarse, unbleached serge, or it may be wool 
in its natural state. Beige damasse is a loose, light, woolen tissue, woven 
in patterns like Damask cloth, while beige de laine is a soft "woolen" beige 
used for ladies dresses. [See Damasse. ] 

Bend-leather. The strongest kind of sole-leather used for shoes. A 
name in the leather trade for a butt or rounded crop cut in two; the half of 
a hide of sole-leather that was trimmed and divided before tanning. 

Bengaline (ben'gal-ene'). A dress fabric woven exactly like a Faille 
silk, except that a fine "worsted" thread is substituted for the weft. This 
weft (which forms its cords) is entirely covered and concealed by the fine, 
silk warp threads, so that the wool is not exposed from either surface. This 
same fabric, with a larger, thicker, and more decided cord, is termed 
Tyrolienne. 

Bengal Stripes. Wide striped ginghams used for skirting, so called 
from having originally been brought from Bengal, but now manufactured 
exclusively in this country. 

Berlin Wool. A fine woolen yarn for working fancy articles in needle 
work. Also called German wool. 

Berlin Gloves. See Gloves. 

Bias. A cut which is diagonal or oblique to the texture of a fabric. 
In retail stores satin and mourning crape are usually cut " bias." 

Bib. [From L. bibere to drink whence also our words imbibe, bibu- 
lous, etc.] A cloth worn by children to keep the front of the dress clean 
while eating; usually made of honeycombed cotton canvas, lawn, lace, and 
the like. 

Birdseye Linen. A honey comb or diamond-figured linen fabric used 
for towels and fancy-work. Birdseye is a term also applied to varieties of 
canvas and crape, these fabrics having spots or markings somewhat 
resembling bird's eyes. 



22 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BIR 

Biretz. See Electoral Cloth. 

Blacksize. In leather manufacture, to cover the tanned skin with a 
coat of stiff size and tallow. The " size" is laid on with a soft brush or 
sponge, and the leather is then well rubbed with a glass slicker to gloss it. 

Blankets. [Said to be derived from Fr. blanchet, meaning a blank 
piece of cloth, without figure. The name is also claimed to be derived 
from that of an English manufacturer, Sir Thomas Blanquett, who in 1340 
was the owner of a large woolen mill near London]. A large, oblong piece 
of soft, loosely woven woolen cloth, spread commonly over the sheets of a 
bed for the procurement of warmth. Sometimes used as a covering for i 
horse when standing or exposed to cold, and sometimes worn as a garment 
especially among Indians and other uncivilized peoples. 
* N Formerly the manufacture of blankets was confined exclusively to the 
New England States, but since 1865 the seat of manufacture has from year 
to year steadily followed the Star of the Empire, until at present woolen 
mills for the manufacture of blankets are found dotting the streams 
throughout the entire West. These mills have every facility and material 
for making cheaper and better goods than can be made by the Eastern 
factories for the money. For many years the Mission mills of San Fran- 
cisco, California, and the mills at Portland, Oregon, have made bed and 
fancy blankets second to none in the world. Ohio, noted for its growing 
fine wools, is also famous for making fine blankets, though probably not 
superior to the products of factories dotting the states of Indiana, Illinois, 
Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota. In the latter state, at Minneapolis, is pro- 
duced the finest blanket in the world, known as the "Royal Rose," 90 by 100 
hches, which sells at wholesale at nearly $40 per pair. ' 

"Eiderdown" blankets have a fine, soft, thick nap on either side, and 
ire tufted and bound with silk, dyed in beautifully tinted and solid colors. 
They are very warm for their weight, not being so thick and clumsy as the 
ordinary comfortable, yet having as much warmth as a double blanket. 

The Navajo (pronounced Nav-a-ho) Indians find a first claim to fame 
by virtue of their blankets. The process of blanket construction by an 
Indian, while in nowise complex, is arduous. All work is performed in the 
most primitive manner, and with tools of the rudest kind. The Navajoes 
number some 40,000 people, having a reservation which embraces a portion 
of both New Mexico and Arizona. They are solely a pastoral people, 
never under any circumstances building a home twice in the same place. 
Navajo shearers are the most expert in the. world. They used to remove 
the fleece by a sort of shaving process, but long ago, even in the sixteenth 
century, succeeded in finding shears, and from that time not even a Nava- 
jo's gun is more carefally kept than are his sheep-shears. After washing 
and cleaning, all of which work is done by the women, the spinners begin 
their operations. The best of the wool only is kept. Much the larger bulk 
is sold to the traders, and by them shipped unwashed to the mills of the 



BIR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 23 

East. The spindle operated by the women is a simple piece of wood some 
eight inches long, scarcely larger than a lead pencil, and sharpened to a 
point. The bundle of wool lies on the woman's right side, not made into 
rolls, but simply cleaned and beaten. She takes up a strand of it, lays it 
against the spindle and twists rapidly with the left hand. The fibre gradu- 
ally takes the form of yarn, though it is loose and uneven. As soon as the 
spindle is full it is unwound and rolled on a ball, after which it is ready for 
weaving. The loom is simplicity itself. The poles are cut the length 
required for the breadth of the blanket. One is secnred to the branches 
of a tree. The other is anchored to the ground with stones. From this 
lower pole to the upper one the strands of yarn are passed, till the "warp" 
is all placed in position. Then, beginning at the lower side, the woman 
begins inserting the "woof." Originally they had but the two colors of 
white and black, and the figures produced, while varying infinitely in form 
and outline, were always combinations of these two. Later, however, the 
women learned to dye the wool, and now they are able to make red, blue, 
green and yellow. With the savage love of vivid colors they combine 
these six in an order that is harmonious and complete in each blanket, pro- 
ducing an effect decidedly pleasing and curious. There is no shuttle. The 
dexterous fingers simply pass the threads back of certain lines of warp, in 
front of others, and continue that process until they have traveled across 
the breadth of the fabric. Then with a sort of comb they press the threads 
of the yarn down firmly. A strand of woof seldom reaches across the 
blanket. The whole work is done with simple "bits" of yarn. But they are 
intertwined so dexterously, are drawn backward and forward so firmly, and 
are beaten into place so solidly, that when the work is done the designs are 
found uniform, the thickness is the same throughout, and the selvedge 
edges are secure against raveling. Nearly any Navajo blanket will hold 
water for an indefinite length of time. Judged by a strict civilized standard, 
their blankets are not handsome, but they possess a barbaric beauty that 
is distinctively their own, and go far to answer the question of the red 
man's origin. Persons accustomed to seeing works of art in a hundred 
lines, would be surprised at the originality and boldness of some of the 
designs displayed in this weaving. Some of them display the zigzag lines 
of vivid lightning, others the suns, moons and shining stars drawn from 
the heavens. Many present the curves and spirals that could only have 
been woven by the most patient and cunning of human fingers. 

The Government provides nearly all of the Indians in the United 
States anually with one pair of 6-pound woolen blankets, costing about 
$3.35. These Navajo Indians as soon as they get a Government blanket, 
proceed to unravel it and wind the yarn into balls. It is dyed to suit the 
garish taste of the Indian, and when the yarn from 5 to 15 of Uncle Sam's 
blankets is accumulated he is ready to make his Navajo blanket. The 
wool from as many as 15 blankets has been known to be woven and 
whipped and thrashed by the Navajo process into one of the blankets of 



24 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BLA 

that name. They are astonishly heavy, and hold water like the skin of an 
animal. [See Teasling, Weaving, Wool.] 

Blazer. A bright colored, loose summer coat, usually of striped flannel, 
worn by tennis and cricket players. The origin of the word is as follows: 
The boat club's uniform at St. John's College is bright red, and the St. 
Johnian jackets have for many years been called blazers, on account of 
being of such fiery color. Up to a few years ago the inaccurate modern 
term of blazer for a jacket of any other colorthan red, was unknown. 

Bleaching. The process of freeing textile fibers and fabrics from their 
natural color, and rendering them white or nearly so. The ancient method 
of bleaching by exposing to the action of the sun's rays and frequent 
wetting, has been nearly superseded (at least where the business in prose- 
cuted on a large scale) by more complicated processes in connection with 
powerful chemical preparations. Among these preparations, the chief are 
chlorin and sulphurous acid, the latter being employed for the animal fibres 
(wool and silk) while the vegetable fibres are bleached with chlorin, the 
bleaching in both cases, however, being preceded with certain cleansing 
processes. Glass is bleached with salt peter, arsenic and red lead. [See 
Linen, Wool, Cotton.] 

A hundred years ago the process of bleaching was known as "whiting." 
We find "whiting time" spoken of in Shakespeare, and in the Merry Wives 
of Windsor allusion is made to the "whitsters" of Datchet Mead. At this 
time the work of bleaching could only be carried on in the open air in the 
manner followed from time immemorial, and consequently the summer 
months alone were suitable, the operations, if the weather happened to be 
unfavorable, not being always completed during the time at command. 
The exposure of fabrics on the open ground in England and Ireland led to 
a practice of stealing linen, for preventing which several severe laws were 
passed from time to time. For instance, George II enacted that "every 
person who shall, by day or night feloniously steal any linen, fustian, 
calico or cotton cloth; or cloth worked, woven, or made of any cotton or 
linen yarn mixed; or any linen or cotton tape, incle, filleting, laces, or any 
fabric, laid to be printed, whitened, crofted, bowked or dried to the value 
of 10 shillings, or shall knowingly buy or receive any such wares stolen, 
shall be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy." Felony of this degree 
was at that period punishable with death. Holland early acquired a rep- 
utation for bleaching, and it was an ordinary practice to send linens there 
in the spring to be returned in the autumn. The tedious character of the 
operations, when the use of cotton goods had increased so vastly through 
the inventions of improved machinery caused attention to be directed to 
chlorin, a gaseous substance contained in common salt, discovered in 1774. 
Bleaching by chlorin is now in extensive use, and allows the buyer of the 
cheapest calicoes a whiter material than his ancestors could obtain in 
costly linens after months of laborious operations. The old system of 
crofting or whiting is yet followed for fine fabrics in the north of Ireland. * 



BLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 25 

Block-printing. There are two modes of printing calico, block-print- 
ing and machine-printing. The former has been practiced from time im- 
memorial. The latter is a modern invention. In the case of block-print- 
ing, the design of the pattern intended to be printed upon the cloth is cut 
out upon a block of sycamore, the parts which are to make the impres- 
sion being left prominent and the rest of the block cut away, just as prac- 
tised for wood engravings. When the figure is too complicated and the 
lines too fine to admit of being cut in wood, it is made by means of small 
pieces of copper, which are driven into the block, and the minute spaces 
filled up with felt. Several colors may be at once applied on the cloth by 
means of one block. The block, being pressed against the cloth, takes the 
color as supplied by rubber tubes and thus produces the pattern. It is an 
exceedingly slow and tedious process. The printing-block is seldom over 
one foot square, several hours being required for each color to dry. In 
machine-printing, as the piece is printed, it passes rapidly over a steam- 
heated roller and dried in one or two minutes. [See Calico.] 

Blonde Lace. Blonde laces were first made in 1745, and being pro- 
duced of unbleached silk, were known as "Nankins" or "Blondes". Blonde 
net is unbleached or cream colored bobbinet. 

Bloom. A term applied to velvets, when by dyeing they are saidto glow 
with a warm color, or luster. Dyers claim that the most important branch 
of black-dyeing upon cotton goods, is that empolyed for cotton velvets, in 
which it is desired to produce a rich lustrous effect; the process is long, 
tedious and uncertain, consisting of successive applications of sumac, 
acetate of iron, logwood and fustic — the end chiefly aimed at being the 
production of a black, with a blush or violet bloom. 

Bloomers. A peculiar and ridiculous costume for women introduced 
and advocated in 1850 by a Mrs. Bloomer of New York, the distinctive 
features of which were a short skirt extending to the knees, loose baggy 
trousers buttoned around the ankle, and a low-crowned hat. 
> Blouse. A light, loose upper garment, made of linen or cotton, worn 
by men as a protection from dust or in the place of a coat ; also a loosely 
fitting dress-body worn by women and children. A blue linen blouse is 
the common dress of French workingmen. [See Smock-Frock.] 

Boa. [From Latin boa, a large serpent.] A long, serpent-like piece 
of fur or feathers, worn around the neck by ladies ; also a fur tippet. A 
boa usually accompanies a muff to complete a set of furs. 

Bobbinet. A machine-made cotton netting, consisting of parallel 
threads which form the warp, upon which two systems of oblique threads are 
laid in such a way that each of the oblique threads make a turn around 
each of the warp threads, producing a nearly hexagonal mesh. 

The art of netting is intimately related to weaving, knitting and ma- 
chine-lace making, from all of which, however, it is distinguished by the 



26 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOB 

regular knotting or twisting of the diagonal threads around the straight 
warp threads. Bobbinet, which is the foundation of machine-made lace, is 
rcade by the intertwisting of threads of fine cotton or silk. , ' - 

- Prior to the year 1800, laces of every description were made by hand. 
Amongst the most beautiful of these hand-wrought laces was a variety 
called " Brussels," which was distinguished by a portion of the threads be- 
ing " twisted at regular intervals so as to form an open spot, in order to 
relieve the sameness of the tissue." The first attempt at the manufacture 
of lace by machinery was an imitation of this Brussels lace, probably on 
account of the great popularity of, and demand for this variety. The first 
step was to make this open work, (bobbinet) upon which to ground the pat- 
tern. In England several efforts were made from 1758 to 1809, but the first 
really successful machine for bobbinet (so named from the threads which 
cross the warps being supplied from bobbins) was that of Jno. Heathcoat, 
invented in 1809, and suggested by the machinery he had seen employed in 
making fishing nets. The principle of the invention was in the use of fixed 
parallel warp threads around which the bobbins worked as the "filling" of a 
fabric, one set going obliquely from right to left, and the second set obliquely 
from left to right. In the machine the warp threads to the number of 700 to 
1,200 in a yard of width are stretched from a roller which extends the whole 
length of the thread beam, and the weft threads are wound each upon a bob- 
bin, formed of two thin brass discs riveted together, leaving a narrow space 
between them for the threads to pass out. Each bobbin holds about 100 yards 
thread, and there are sometimes as many as 1,200 of them to a machine. 
About 30,000 meshes per minute can be made with improved machines. 
The pieces of bobbinet measure from 30 to 40 yards each ; the width is vari- 
able, being very narrow in Wash Blond and wider in Brussels and Darn net. 
In England at this time (1810), the bobbinet machine was regarded as 
the most wonderful and important invention that had been introduced. By 
the aid of one machine it was possible to manufacture in a day the same 
amount of netting that formerly required two-score men and women. The 
unfortunate work people in their rage organized a mob and destroyed 
Heathcoat's machines, and declared they would make scrap-iron and kind- 
ling wood of all he should thereafter manufacture. This caused him to re- 
move to Nottingham, where the indignation was not so high, and where he 
began the manufacture of netting and machine lace. Prosperity shone 
upon the trade, and numerous individuals, clergymen, lawyers, doctors, and 
others, readily embarked capital in so tempting a speculation. Fabulous 
wages were earned during this period. It was no uncommon thing for an 
artisan to leave his usual calling and betaking to himself a lace frame, of 
which he was a part proprietor, realize by working upon it 20, 30 and 40 
shillings a day. In consequence of such wonderful gains, " Nottingham and 
the adjoining towns became the scene of an epidemic mania; many, though, 
nearly devoid of mechanical genius or the constructive talent, tormented 
themselves night and day with projects of bobbins, pushers, lockers, point- 



BOC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 27 

bars and needles of various forms, endeavoring to get around or improve 
the Heathcoat patent, till their minds got permanently bewildered. Sev- 
eral lost their senses altogether; and some after cherishing visions of wealth 
as in the olden time of alchemy, finding their schemes abortive, sank into 
despair and committed suicide." 

Many improvements have been made on the original machine, but to 
this day the principle still remains the same. [See Lace, Lace Curtains.] 

Bocasine (bok'-a-sin). [From buckram]. A linen fabric woven so 
fine as to look like silk; not in general use at the present time. 

Booking. A coarse woolen flannel or baize named from Bocking, 
Essex county, England, where it was first made. 

Bolster. Something on which to rest the head while reclining; 
specifically a long cylindrical cushion, stuffed with feathers, hair, straw, or 
other materials, generally laid on the bed under the pillows. 

Bolt. Any quantity of rolled or wrapped fabric. 

Bolting Cloth. A cloth of linen or silk used in mills for bolting or 
sifting meal and flour; also a fine wide linen fabric used by ladies for 
fancy-work. The most expensive variety of silk fabric made is bolting 
cloth for millers' use, woven almost altogether in Switzerland. There is 
no import duty on this, provided it is not used for, or suitable for wearing 
apparel. 

Bombast. Cotton or other stuff of a soft, loose texture, used to stuff 
a garment; padding. 

Bombazine (bom-ba-zeen ' ) [From bombycina, made of silk.] Orig- 
inally a dress fabric woven of silk and wool, made in England as early as 
the reign of Elizabeth; afterward a cloth made of silk alone, but always of 
one color. At present, a light twilled dress fabric of which the warp is 
silk and the filling worsted, giving it a changeable shiny appearance; form- 
erly black but now made in various colors. In England in 1575 the Dutch 
elders presented in court a new fabric called Bombazines, praying to have 
the "search and seal " of them to their use. These early Bombazines are 
said to have been of silk and cotton, but as the use of cotton was not begun 
in England until about fifty years later (1625), it is probable they were of 
silk and wool or silk and linen. In 1800 Bombazines were described as 
spun from wefts of fine wool, the worsted being thrown upon the right 
side; so that the modern Bombazines of silk warp and worsted weft in all 
likelihood closely resemble those of the sixteenth century. 

Bombyx. The caterpillar of the Bombyx mori is well known by the 
name of silk worm. When full grown it is three inches long. It feeds on 
the leaves of the mulberry tree and the Osage orange, and spins an oval 
cocoon the size of a pigeon's egg, of a close tissue, usually of a yellow color 
but sometimes white. A single fibre is often 1,100 feet long. It requires 
1,600 worms to produce a pound of silk. Greek missionaries first brought 



28 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOM 

the eggs of the bombyx or silk worm from China to Constantinople in 565 
A. D. In the .twelfth century the cultivation of silk was introduced into 
the Kingdom of Naples, and several centuries afterward into France. In 
the seventeenth century silk worms were brought to the United States. 
[See Silk.] 

Bonifoycinous. Silken; made of silk; silky, feeling like silk; or, of the 
color of the silk-worm moth, of a pale yellow color. 

Bone-lace. Lace, usually of linen thread, made on a cushion with 
bobbins, and taking its chief decorative character from the pattern woven 
into it as distinguished from point-lace; so named according to some 
authorities, from the fact that the bobbins were originally made of bone. 
Fuller, England 1662, says that much bone-lace "is made in and about 
Honytoun, (Honiton) and weekly returned to London. Let it not be con- 
demned for a superfluous wearing, because it does neither hide nor heat 
the bodie, seeing it doth adorn. Hereby many children who otherwise 
would be burthensome to the parish, prove beneficial to their parents. 
Yea, many lame in their limbs and impotent in their arms, if they are able 
in their fingers, gain a livelihood thereby." The question has arisen as to 
what sort of bones were used in the production of this lace. Fuller ex- 
plains that sheep's trotters were used for bobbins, and that thus the name 
came into use, but other authorities say that the Devonshire lace-makers, 
deriving their knowledge from tradition, declare that when lace-making 
was first introduced into their country, pins, so indispensable to their art, 
being then sold at a price far beyond their means, the lace-makers, mostly 
the wives of fishermen living along the coast, adopted the bones of fish, 
which, scraped and cut into regular lengths, fully answered as a sub- 
stitute. 

Bonnet. [From Hindoo banat, woolen cloth or broadcloth.] A form 
of head-covering worn by women out of doors. It encloses the head more 
or less at the sides and generally the back, and is usually trimmed with 
some elaborateness and tied on the head with ribbons. It differs from a 
hat of the ordinary form in having no brim. In Scotland the term bonnet 
is applied to any kind of a cap worn by men, but specifically to the closely 
woven and seamless Scotch caps of wool, known as glengarys, balmorals, 
braid bonnets and kilmarnocks. In England about the year 1480, extrava- 
gantly trimmed bonnets were worn by men as well as by women. These 
were usually made of cloth, sometimes richly adorned with feathers, jewelry 
and ornaments of gold. It was regarded as a grave breach of propriety by 
the law-makers of this period for a married man to indulge in these fanci- 
ful bonnets, and in consequence a law was enacted that " if any sane per- 
son, of full age, whose wife not being divorced, nor willingly absenting her- 
self from him, doth wear any French hood or bonnet of velvet, with any 
habiliment, paste, or edge of gold, pearl or stone shall lose £V), for every 
three months " during which time the law was disobeyed, for the evident 
purpose of "protecting" the rights of unmarried men. 



BOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 29 

Bookbinder's Cloth. A stiffly sized variety of cotton cloth, colored in 
every conceivable tint and shade, and often decoratively embossed, much 
used for the cheap binding of books in place of leather. All books said to 
be "cloth bound" are covered with bookbinder 's cloth. 

Bookfold. A piece of linen or cotton fabric containing 24 yards. 

Bookmuslin. A glazed, starchy, transparent muslin, used for the 
covering of library books or lining of dresses; very similar to paper 
cambric. 

Boots and Shoes, From the earliest times a comfortable covering for 
the feet has been one of man's first necessities upon emerging from 
savagery. As he advanced toward civilization he began to give more and 
more attention to his footgear, making it not only comfortable, but orna- 
mental. Where climate demanded more protection for the foot than the 
original sandal, the primitive races shaped a rude shoe out of a single piece 
of untanned hide; this was laced with a thong and so made a complete 
covering. Out of these two varieties — sole without upper, and upper with- 
out sole — arose the perfect shoe and boot, which consists of a combination 
of both. The characteristics of a nation can often be traced in its shoes. 
The high, stiff boot of the uncompromising Dutchman is as truly an index 
to his character as is the gaily-colored, up-curving slipper worn by the 
luxurious Turk. The manufacture of American shoes is no less char- 
acteristic. Our factories turn out their product in such quantities that no 
man. woman or child is too poor to wear them, and a barefoot peasantry is 
an unknown condition on this side of the water. One workman can peg 
600 pairs per day. In China, on the other hand, where customs never change, 
the cobbler still goes from house to house, announcing his approach with a 
rattle, and taking up his abode with the family while he accomplishes the 
necessary working and mending. In certain parts of Asia Minor it is 
nothing unusual for a pair of shoes to be handed down from generation to 
generation, being worn only upon state occasions, and carried in the hand 
by the proud possessor on holidays. 

The word "shoe" occurs thirty-one times in the English version of the 
Bible. "A man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor; and this 
was a testimony in Israel." — Ruth 4:7. "Over Eden will I cast my shoe" — 
Psalm 9: 8. These passages evidently refer to an established symbolical 
use of the shoe in transferring property. "Loosening the latchets of shoes," 
and "bearing the shoes" are alluded to as works of inferiority. In the far 
East the shoes are removed as a mark of respect, and all Orientals take 
off their shoes when entering a church, but keep on their headgear. The 
Hebrews took great interest in the ornamentation of their shoes. Solomon 
exclaims, "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, Oh, prince s daughter!" 
An old writer— Bend Boudoin — maintains that God, when giving Adam 
skins of beasts for clothing, gave him also shoes of the same material. 
Xenophon tells us that the ten thousand Greeks who were with him in the 



30 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOO 

great retreat, were compelled for the "want of shoes" to cover their feet 
with skins which caused them great inconvenience. During the dark days 
of the Revolution in our own country, shoes and leather were so scarce 
that the heroes of Valley Forge were driven to tying the bark of trees to 
their feet, and it was no uncommon thing in the winter of 1779 for stains 
of blood to mark the footsteps of patriots. 

The earliest form of shoe was, of course, the sandal, which allowed the 
foot full freedom of motion. It was secured to the foot by means of thongs 
passing over the instep and between the great and second toes, so that it 
was held firmly whichever way the foot moved, and yet could be cast 
off at pleasure. The Egyptian priests wore sandals of palm leaves and 
papyrus, while those of the common people were made of leather. The 
papyrus shoe was interwoven like a mat. The Hebrew shoe was similar to 
that of the Egyptian, the military sandals being made of brass or iron. The 
Roman soldier, when obliged to fight in a hill country, placed his feet in 
sandals with soles heavily spiked, and with thongs extending far up the 
ankle. While he marched in these, the luxurious citizens at the capital 
employed the security he gave them by inventing fanciful boots formed of 
animals' skins dyed purple, covered with gilded ornaments, and further 
enriched by the head and claws of the animal, which were left to hang down 
from the top of the boot. 

One of the most curious form of shoes ever known was the "chopine," 
which originated in Turkey, and spread through Europe, being worn even 
in England; inexplicably enough, for nothing more clumsy and difficult 
could have been invented. They increased the height of a lady by half 
a yard, and it was impossible to walk a step in them unless supported by 
a maid servant on either side. 

This is certainly about equal in folly to the much condemned Chinese 
custom of deforming ladies' feet; though it did not cause so much pain, it 
interfered much more with freedom of locomotion. The inconvenience of 
the Chinese custom is all thrown upon the weaker sex, for the China men 
wear shoes that can not be excelled for ease and comfort; but Fashion 
thousands of years ago decreed that all ladies of any rank should have 
their feet so bound in childhood that they can not grow longer than three 
or four inches from toe to heel. The Chinese affectionately term these 
distorted pedal extremities "little golden lilies." They cause a growing 
girl the greatest torment, and cripple her for life; but she is taught to 
endure willingly in order to insure rank and position, much after the 
fashion of the fair sex in our own land. 

Our English forefathers, much as they plumed themselves upon sturdy 
common sense in dress, indulged in occasional vagaries in the way of foot- 
wear which no giddy Frenchman could surpass. One of their greatest 
extravagances in this line was the pointed toe. It began with an simple 
point, "only this and nothing more," but the point grew and curved and 
curved and grew until it attained a length of 15 inches, and was aptly com* 



BOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 31 

pared to devil's claws. In order to overcome their inconvenience they 
were sometimes secured by a chain or cord to the knee, many specimens 
being still in existence having rings attached for fastening the chain. The 
reaction against this extreme came in the form of broad-toed shoes. These 
were made gradually shorter and wider until they caused the fashionable 
foot to appear like a hoof, and it was found necessary in 1480 to restrict 
them in breadth. Having attained a width of twelve inches, and were still 
widening, sensible Queen Mary issued a proclamation prohibiting a wider 
shoe than six inches at the toe. The next freak of fashion came in the form 
of wide topped boots. These came into vogue with the courtiers of the 
second Charles. They were of soft, pliable Spanish leather, which doubled 
over the top like a cuff; and this boot-cuff was further adorned with ruffles 
of costly lace. The extreme width of these boot tops with their frail orna- 
mentation, made it necessary for the wearer to take wide spraddling steps 
in walking. 

In the ninth and tenth centuries the greatest kings and princes in 
Europe all wore wooden shoes, not wooden boots like those worn by the 
Hollanders, but wooden soles fastened to the feet with leather thongs. The 
wooden boot coming up to the ankle is, at present, worn by the peasants 
throughout all Europe, The towns of Mende and Fillefort are the head- 
quarters for the wooden shoe trade in France, about 1 700 persons there 
finding employment in the manufacture. These shoes (or boots) are made 
from a single piece of wood roughly cut and hollowed out into shoe form. 
Analogous to this industry is the clog-making trade of England. Clogs are 
heavy wooden shoes to which, shoe or boot, uppers are attached. Sole and 
heel are made of one piece, from a block of maple or ash two inches thick. 
These clogs are of great advantage to all who work in damp.sloppy places, 
keeping the feet dry and comfortable in a manner impossible with either 
leather or india-rubber. They are, consequently, largely used on the Con- 
tinent and in the United States by ditchers, dyers, bleachers, tanners, etc. 
There is also a considerable demand for expensive clogs, with fancy 
uppers, for use_by clog dancers and others on the stage. 

Probably as curious an adaptation of shoes to the requirements of cli- 
mate as ever known, is the Canadian snow-shoe. This is formed of a wooden 
frame work, strongly interlaced with thongs of leather. Its use was learned 
from the Indians by travellers and hunters; and it is exceedingly difficult 
to acquire the pace. The inhabitants of British America travel rapidly on 
the broad surfaces of these shoes. Both men and women wear them, and 
the number of miles gotten over in a day by able-bodied experts sound 
extravagant to people not aware of the facility with which they can be man- 
aged. They are from eight to fourteen inches in breath at the widest part, 
and sometimes as much as seven feet long, though generally about four 
feet. 

The present form of leather boots and shoes was adopted early in the 
17th century. The general styles have not varied much for many years; 



32 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOO 

the narrow sole, the broad sole, the box toe and the high and the low heel 
being the principal differences between one pair and another. It has been 
but a few years since the best trade would not think of buying ready-made 
footwear, but their manufacture by large establishments, however, has 
reached such perfection that it is doubtful if there is one out of ten thou- 
sand well-to-do people who have their shoes made to order by hand. Man- 
ufacturing has been reduced to such a science that it is possible to do work 
as well by machinery as by hand, and at the same time shoes are made 
much cheaper now than they were twenty years ago. ' This is on account 
of the reduced cost of tanning leather, more economical production and 
better freight facilities. There was a time when the person whose feet 
were not the shape that nature may have intended, or who were particu- 
larly sensitive or fastidious, was justified in having shoes made by exact 
and special measurement. But to-day the factory-made shoes are of every 
conceivable shape, size, style and finibh. The finest shoes are made in 
seven widths, A, B, C, D, E, EE, F; and in length varying in size from a 
third to a sixth of an inch. A full " size " of a shoe or boot means one-third 
of an inch in length ; half " sizes " mean one-sixth of an inch; expressed 6, 
6K» 7, 1%, etc. These figures do not represent the actual length of the shoe 
(as do sizes of hosiery) but start from an arbitrary base. 

It is a matter of fact that the shoemaker (compared with his vocation 
once) is now only a repairer and vender of factory-made goods. His 
shelves are loaded down with goods purchased from the jobbers and all the 
manufacturing he does takes up but a very small portion of his time. He 
is really a merchant with the ability to halfsole, cobble and straighten-up 
heels. The consumer is the gainer by all this, for the amount demanded 
for a pair of boots prior to the war would now purchase four pairs of well- 
made and neatly-fashioned shoes. 

It is a fact very noticable and one also that has been commented freely 
upon, that among the urban population of the United States, boots have 
long been en passe. Ever since they went out of fashion many years ago, 
there have been occasional and fitful attempts to revive the use of them. 
Men's predilections are variable. In respect of shoes, every conceivable 
taste has been thoroughly ministered to, but it is doubtful whether the use 
of boots will ever again become general. Here and there is encountered 
an elderly man whose partiality for them cannot be changed. He began 
to wear them in his youth and has clung to them ever since. Some physi- 
cians maintain that the wearing of boots acts as a preventative of rheuma- 
tism. They not only repel extraneous moisture, but being loose at the top 
permit the free escape of the natural perspiration of the feet. Years ago 
they were the acknowledged badge of a gentleman; now they are worn by 
coachman and grooms, and are regarded as the insignia of servitude. 
A century back there was a saying "every gentleman wears boots; " now we 
have the terse tale of a hanging in the phrase, " he died with his boots on." 
The decline of the boot is another illustration of how the practical has 



BOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 33 

driven out the picturesque. When courtiers wore powdered wigs and lace 
ruffles, boots were indispensable, but in this unpoetical age the male por- 
tion of humanity has no time to expend upon useless furbelows and trap- 
pings. The army officer, of course, wears boots just as he always did; and 
the bugle-call to "boots and saddle " in a cavalry camp is as potent as of 
yore. But we are a nation of peace and army officers are few. Foreigners 
marvel that they can travel from Maine to Mexico and from Hatteras to 
to the Golden Gate without seeing a solitary soldier. 

But the soldiers of the soil, the industrial army of our country, still 
continue to wear a certain amount of boots, and the trade in them is by no 
means inconsiderable. The names of the lines made by the various fac- 
tories tell the story. There are " driving, ' " ditcher " and " freighters " boots, 
and there are " mining " and "lumbermen's " and " cowboys'" boots. Cow- 
boys wear fine calf boots with high heels and fancy tops. They job at $3 
to $3.50 a pair. A line with Goodyear welt bring $4.25. A heavy calf 
mountaineer boot jobs at $3.75. For lumbermen and out door laborers in 
the northern latitudes, leather has given way to the felt and wool boots, 
worn in conjunction with a buckled rubber overshoe. Wool boots without 
leather stays sell for $8 to $9.50 per dozen. 

Certain philosophers have contended, with a great deal of force, that 
boots are an index of character. That eminent authority, Kirtley, has long 
adhered to this view. " Men who wear boots " he tells us, " are superior 
for many reasons. They manifest, in the first place, decent reverence for 
the example of their forefathers. Boots, they know, were worn by the 
men of the olden time — the men who expelled the British invaders from 
our shores, and founded this mighty Republic. They are not unaware 
that George Washington, when asked by a Virginia cobbler to don a pair 
of patent leather pumps, nailed the ear of the offender to the town pump. 
Then, too, they recall the preference for boots of every man who has made 
his mark in'the commercial, professional or the political world. Allegiance 
to boots has invariably been synonymous with uninterrupted and marvel- 
ous success. Disloyalty to boots has provoked certain and ignominious 
failure." 

In the manufacture of shoes there are two main divisions. The minor 
division — the making of "turn" shoes — embraces all work in which there is 
only one thin, flexible sole, which is sewed to the upper while outside in, 
and turned over when completed. Slippers and ladies' thin kid shoes, are 
examples of this class of work. 

In the other division the upper is united to an insole, and at least one 
outsole. In this are comprised all classes, shapes and qualities of goods, 
from shoes up to long-top boots, with all their variations of lacing, button- 
ing, congress, etc. Till within recent times, shoemaking was a pure handi- 
craft, but now machinery effects almost every operation in the art. In the 
beginning of shoemaking inventions the principal difficulties to overcome 
were encountered in the operation of fastening together the soles and 
3 



34 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOO 

uppers. The first success in this important operation was effected when 
means other than sewing were devised. In 1809 David M. Randolph ob- 
tained a patent for fastening the outer sole to the inner sole by means of 
little nails. This invention may be said to have laid the foundation of 
machine boot-making. In 1810 M. J. Brunnel patented machinery for 
fastening the soles to uppers by means of metal pins or nails. 

Apart from sewing by machine or hand, three principal methods of 
attaching soles to uppers are in use at present. The first is "pegging;" the 
second is "riveting," or "clinching," with iron or brass nails, the points of the 
nails being turned by coming in contact with the iron last used. The third 
method, "screwing," has come into extensive use since the standard screwing- 
machine was introduced. The standard screw machine, which is an Ameri- 
can invention, is provided with a reel of stout, screw-threaded brass wire, 
which is inserted into and screwed through outsole, upper edge and insole. 
Inside the upper a head presses against the insole directly opposite the 
point of the screw, and the instant that the screw and head touch the wire 
is cut level with the outsole. The screw, making its own hole, fits tightly 
in the leather, and the two soles, being both compressed and screwed firmly 
together, make a perfectly water-tight and solid shoe. The principal dis- 
advantage in the use of standard-screwed soles is the great difficulty met 
with in removing and levelling down the remains of an old sole when re- 
pairs are necessary. 

The various forms of sewing-machines by which uppers are closed, and 
their important modifications for uniting soles and uppers, are also princi- 
pally of American origin. The first important step in the difficult problem 
of sewing together soles and uppers by a machine was taken by L. R. 
Blake, tn 1858. Blake's machine was ultimately perfected as the MacKay 
sole-sewing machine — one of the most successful and money-making in- 
ventions of modern times. Blake's original machine was very imperfect 
and was incapable of sewing round the toe of a shoe; but a half-interest of 
it coming into the hands of Gordon MacKay, he with Blake effected most 
important improvements in the mechanism, and they jointly in 1860 pro- 
cured patents which secured to them the monopoly of making machine- 
sewed boots for twenty-one years. On the outbreak of the Civil War, a 
great demand arose for boots, and there being at the same time much labor 
withdrawn from the market, a profitable field was opened up for the use of 
the machine, which was now capable of sewing a sole right around. 
Machines were leased out by the MacKay Company to other manufacturers 
at a royalty of from ^ to 3 cents on every pair of soles sewed, the machines 
themselves registering the work done. The income of the Company 
from royalties increased from $38,000 in 1863 to $589,000 in 1873, and con- 
tinued to rise till the main patents expired in 1881, when there was in use 
in the United States nearly two thousand Blake-MacKay machines, sewing 
yearly 50,000,000 pairs of boots and shoes. 

The range of machinery for making and finishing other parts of a shoe. 



BOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 35 

used in a well-equipped factory, is very extensive, embracing- machines for 
cutting leather, pressing-rollers for sole-leather, and cutting-dies for stamp- 
ing out soles and heel pieces. For finishing there are scouring, sand 
papering and burnishing machines for the soles, and stamping machines 
for marks and monograms. In short there is not a single operation neces- 
sary in shoemaking, however insignificent, for which machinery has not 
been devised. 

This country consumes more than 200,000,000 pairs of boots, shoes and 
slippers annually. It is safe to place the figures at 17,000,000 pairs a 
month of all kinds. When some circumstance occurs which forces the 
people of this great country to wear their shoes a week or a fortnight 
longer than they are accustomed to doing, it produces a perceptible effect 
upon the shoe and leather trade. The entire trade is very quick to feel 
the effect of unseasonable weather. This sensitiveness is accounted for by 
the fact that the shoe business is comprised of but one class of goods 
alone, while all other branches of merchandising and manufacturing are 
cc.nposed of scores of different lines. 

The manufacture of shoe "lasts" is to-day a fine art. Makers of 
statues and sculpture may commit errors that the ordinary observer will 
not perceive. But manufacturers of lasts are without this immunity. They 
must build well and truly, and their dumb models, inanimate as they are, 
must have the curves and grace and anatomical peculiarities of the human 
foot. The beauty of the foot depends upon the elasticity, symmetrical 
aliveness of each toe and muscle, and upon the length of the toes relatively 
to the contour of the whole foot, and upon the curve of the outer side of the 
sole. There never was a handsome foot in the classic sense that had short 
toes, and there never was a foot that fully satisfied the sense of beauty but 
was arched or curved on the outside. The inner curve is far more com- 
mon, and exists frequently when the outer side is as flat as a negro's. 

Lasts are made of the trunks of maple and persimmon trees. A last 
factory is an interesting sight. Rugged tree trunks, redolent with forest 
life, are hauled by a fatal chain to a vicious circular saw. The big clumsy 
slices of wood are rapidly cut, roughed, and placed in the silent drying 
room. In another part of the building are lathing machines busily trim- 
ming the homely blocks into shape. Then comes the paring of heels and 
toes. Next the shaving and finishing, which is followed by plating the 
heels and toes of the lasts with iron. Sandpapering wheels smooth irreg- 
ularities on the grain, and finally it is coated with shellac. In all these 
operations, conducted so skillfully and rapidly, the eye and hand of an 
artist is constantly employed, for if the slightest imperfection occurs the 
last has to be cast aside. [See Leather]. 

Bootee (boot-ee'). A trade-name for a half or short boot for women. 

Boot-powder* Massive talc, or soapstone reduced to powder, used to 
dust the inside of a new or tightly-fitting shoe, to facilitate drawing it on. 



36 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BOU 

Boucla (boo-clay'). A style of weaving in which a rough, knotted sur- 
face is produced. These bunches or knots are formed in the warp or weft 
threads prior to weaving, and appear at short intervals over the surface of 
the fabric. This weave is generally confined to woolen dress goods and 
cloaking. 

Bowing: (bo'-ing). The old process of preparing the fur for the body 
of a felt hat. Usually about 3 ounces of fur was spread upon a platform 
of boards about 5 feet square, over which a large bow some 6 feet long, 
strung with catgut, was suspended. This bow was held in the left hand of 
the hatter, while with the right he tugged or twanged the string of the bow 
and made it vibrate upon the fur, and into it with great dexterity and the 
nicest judgment. This operation has always been considered a beautiful 
sight to a stranger, as the hatter goes on plucking the string, and the string 
playing upon the top of the fur which lies upon the left hand side of the 
platform. The fur touched by the string is made to fly from one side of 
the boards to the other with the greatest regularity. In this operation the 
different materials are tossed to-and-fro and mixed with a much greater 
regularity than if drawn by machinery. One half of the intended hat, 
called a bat, is. bowed at a time, and both in nearly a triangular shape, 
which is pressed and gently rubbed with the hands backward and forward 
so as to create a friction on the surface fibers, thereby interlacing the out- 
side filaments, by which means the safe-lifting of the two half -solidified por- 
tions of the future hat is secured. The one-half being laid upon the other 
they are joined together by overlapping two of the three sides, thereby 
giving to the intended hat the form and figure of a hollow cone, but so 
tender that none but an experienced hatter could handle it. This finishes 
the operation of "bowing," after which come felting and shaping, for de- 
scriptions of which processes s°2 Hats. 

Box Coat. Early in the present century an overcoat with a cape, in- 
tended for drivers or travelers on the outside of a coach. At present, a 
short overcoat, usually of a light and delicate color used for attending 
operas and balls and the like. Sometimes called an Opera coat. 

Box-Plait. A double fold or plait, as on a shirt bosom or a woman's 
dress; a method of folding cloth alternately in opposite directions so as to 
form a kind of plait from each side. 

Braid. A narrow textile band or tape formed by plaiting or knitting 
together several strands of silk, cotton, wool, or mohair, used for the 
trimming and binding of garments. The production of silk and mohair 
goods form a branch of the larger silk manufacturing trade; which more 
than most others is free from season fluctuations. In silk varieties since 
1887, and in mohair since 1890 the bulk of these goods consumed by the 
domestic trade have been manufactured in this country. The braids 
produced at Patterson, N J., outrival the best that Europe can produce, 
whether in quality of material and consequent durability, in exellence of 



BRA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 37 

weaving, or in finish. In the numbering of braids they are designated as 
being of so many "lines" according to the number of ribs they possess. 
If a braid has four ribs running lengthwise from end to end, it is called a 
4-line braid. In numbering cords and other similar materials there is no 
uniform system adopted. Their description is supposed to be based on the 
number of main strands that enter into their construction, but this is not 
always the case. The majority of standard wool dress braids, such as 
"Goff's," "Corticella," etc., are numbered 61, which signifies that the braid 
is composed of 61 threads. This may easily be determined by counting the 
ribs — which will be found to be 15 — each rib or plait being composed of 4 
threads = 60 + 1 thread necessary to start the web = 61. On account of 
one thread being necessary to start the plaiting of a braid, all braids if 
"sized" according to the number of individual threads which compose 
the texture will be found to bear odd numbers. Formerly they were all 
so numbered, but in recent years the width of fine silk and mohair braids 
is indicated by the number of longitudinal ribs in their tructure. 

Brandeuhurgs. [Named from Brandenbourg. in Germany.] A 
variety of ornamental buttons formed somewhat in the shape of a long, 
narrow barrel, smaller at the ends than in the middle, and made of silk on 
a wooden mold or foundation, usually connected with loops and worn on 
the front of garments and to fasten men's heavy overcoats; corresponding 
to frogs on ladies' cloaks. [See Frog.] 

Breakfast Shawl. A small, square checked shawl, folded diagonally 
and worn around the neck by women. 

Breast Clout. A bib. 

Breech Clout. A cloth of any description, covering the breech and 
loins of Indians, Africans and other uncivilized peoples. 

Breeches. A bifurcated garment formerly worn to cover but the hips 
and thighs; improperly used in the sense of trousers or pantaloons. The 
word is derived from Anglo-Saxon breech, which indicates the lower part 
of the body behind, or the hinder part of anything. The " Geneva " Bible, 
an English translation issued from Geneva in 1560, by several British 
divines, has been called the " breeches " Bible, because in the story of 
Adam and Eve, a passage (Genesis III, 7) was translated: " Then the eyes 
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they 
sewed fig leaves together and made themselves breeches." Later and 
more fastidious translators make the passage read " aprons." 

Bride. In lace making and needle work a loop, link or tie connecting 
two different parts of the work together. [See Lace.] 

Broad Lace. A wool lace or embroidery made in bands about four 
inches wide and used as an ornamental border to the upholstery of a car- 
riage or car. 

Broadcloth. A fine "woolen" cloth, commonly black, with a smooth, 



38 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BRO 

glossy surface, principally used in making men's garments, so called from 
its breadth which is usually 60 inches. Broadcloth is woven of the finest 
grades of felting wools. When taken from the loom it does not present 
that polished appearance which is its distinctive feature as seen in the 
shops of tailors. In the loom it is rough and dull-colored, with the threads 
which compose the warp and woof plainly showing. All broadcloths are 
subject to the action of fulling or felting, with the result that the wool-hairs 
of the weft and those of the warp become mutually entangled to such, an 
extent that these cloths never unravel when cut by the tailor, and no 
hemming of a garment is required. Twelve hours in the fulling mill will 
reduce a piece of cloth two-fifths in breadth and one-third of its length. 
This shortening and narrowing result is the effect of \ts felting \n the fulling 
mill during the operations of scouring and washing, every fibre of the wool 
of which the cloth is made having clung to its immediate neighbors (both 
warp and weft) and with the spirit of true friendship, they remain forever 
in each other's embrace, the cloth being transformed from a loose to a 
solid fabric. 

Upon every fibre of wool are minute scales, so very minute, indeed, 
that it requires the aid of a powerful microscope to enable the beholder 
to discern them, and even then but faintly. These scales, which cover 
every filament of wool, are thin and pointed, overlapping each other quite 
similar to the scales of a fish or the shingles upon a house. On a single 
filament of merino wool, as many as 2400 barbed scales, like teeth, project- 
ing from the center of the stem have been counted in the space of one 
inch. On Saxony wool there are 2,700 while other wools fall to 1,600, 1,700 
and 1,900, and none have been found to have so few as 1,000 to the inch. 

The cause of that mysterious and curious operation called felting, is 
the existence of these scales. Of all the fibres only wool can be felted, 
because none of the other fibres possess these minute scales. Till lately 
the best posted manufacturers and the investigating philosopher were 
equally, at a loss to explain upon what principle the felting effect was pro- 
duced. Take, for instance, a handful of wet wool; squeeze and press it, 
work it a little with the hand, and then observe the effect; for immediately 
upon pressing it a certain locomotion is thereby conferred upon every fibre 
of the handful, which is increased by every turn of position that is given. 
The rolling and pressing change the position of each fibre. A friction is 
produced upon every member composing the mass; a footing, as it were, is 
obtained from the scales of each, and the wool being all bent or curled, a 
progressive motion goes on, interlacing each other in their travels, result- 
ing in a compact, dense body, which challenges the patience and perse- 
verence to undo. Every hair has been traveling in its own individual 
direction, boring, warping, grasping, holding and twisting amongst its 
fellows like a collection of live worms. This is "felting." After the felting 
process is carried to the desired extent, the cloth is slightly napped, and 
sheared to produce an even smooth surface; and wetted, steamed, ironed 



BRO " COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 39 

and pressed many times to make the polished surface. " Steaming " con- 
sists in passing hot live steam through the rolled piece, and alternating 
with cold water, just as a barber acts when shampooing a customer. This 
fastens the bloom and nap, and preserves the beautiful peach-like appear- 
ance of the finish. After being carefully dried it is sheared and cropped, 
so that the top hair or down is taken off, and the under growth of 
down made a regular length. ' 

The finest piece of broadcloth which ever left a loom was manufac- 
tured at the woolen mills of Vassalboro, Maine. It was first exhibited at 
the World's Fair in London in 1851, and next at the Centennial in 1876, 
being pronounced by the judges in that line of goods as surpassing any- 
thing^of the kind ever displayed; in fact there is no record of the manu- 
facture of any broadcloth superior in either texture or finish, and the only 
reason, as assigned, why these superior fabrics have not been made on a 
commercial scale, is because of their extremely high price. 

Broadcloth is also the name given to a wide fabric made of "woolen" 
yarn, with a slightly napped face, exclusively used for ladies' dresses. Its 
origin is derived from the material used for men's wear, from which it dif- 
fers chiefly in weight and finish. Broadcloth and ladies' cloth are terms 
often used to signify the same fabric, and, while the two are practically the 
same cloth, there is a difference between them. Broadcloth has a twilled 
back, and is of heavier weight and closer shorn than ladies' cloth, while 
ladies' cloth is a plain weave, with a heavier nap. [See Wool, Woolen.] 

Brocade. A fabric woven of any material or combination of colors, 
in which a design of flowers or foliage is inserted. Brocades in the olden 
time were rich fabrics, woven with gold and silver and silk. To prepare the 
golden thread in those days, a flat gilded ribband was used over a silk of 
the nearest possible tint to the metal, and the principal skill in this prepara- 
tion was to have the circumlocutions of the metal around the silk in such 
manner that the edges were drawn as closely as possible to each other, 
without overlapping. The manufacture of these golden threads was 
brought to such a degree of perfection that they Avere in high favor with 
the public taste. There early existed in Milan, Italy, a great factory using 
a secret process which made a thread, only one side of which was golden. 
Ornamented threads of hemp and flax, and flat threads of copper 
were also made. The Chinese economically employed bands of gilded 
paper upon the silk, and sometimes used them without other support 
than their own fabric. But these were very ephemeral, and were rarely 
used except as tapestry or ornaments, as they needed constant protection 
from the moisture of the atmosphere. 

Afterward, the foundation of " brocades " was of silk, relieved with 
flowers or ornaments of gold or silver, and later the name brocade was 
given to fabrics ornamented with flowers and other figures in which no 
metallic thread was employed. In the 13th century a large factory for the 



40 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BRO 

manufacture of brocades was in operation at Lucca, Italy, but the gover- 
nor forced the workmen to abandon the city. Three hundred of them went 
to Venice, where encouraged by the offer many privileges, they founded a 
new factory. For a long time afterward the Venetian factory flourished 
and turned out immense quantities of fine goods. In the course of the latter 
century this factory invented a modification of brocade, and gave the name 
of damask (curtain) to the new fabric. This textile, although it contained 
but half the gold or silver used in brocades, showed a much richer and 
more even surface. The metallic thread was not passed round a thread of 
silk, but in passing the clofh between heavy rollers the metallic thread thus 
represented ornaments which had the appearance of brilliant leaves of 
gold or silver in a single piece, similar to the curtain damask of the pres- 
ent time. 

This process was kept secret for a long time by the manufacturers, but 
the immense advantages accruing to Venice attracted the attention of the 
French government, which employed a celebrated expert to go there and 
ascertain the methods employed. The attempt of the expert was not fruit- 
less, and factories for making the new brocade immediately sprang up in 
Lyons. There are many rich brocades of the original sort still produced 
in India, especially in the looms of Benares. These gold brocades are 
called kin-cobs, and in style and essential character are older than the use 
of silk in Babylona, Phoenicia or Egypt. Japan takes now as for centuries 
past, the front place in the production of figured silks of all kinds, especi- 
ally gold wrought brocades, rich with flowers and other ornaments, figured 
damasks and other beautiful fabrics. There are two kinds made in Japan, 
gold thread brocade, and silk damask brocade, or brocade inwrought with 
flowers and foliage. Gold and silver is very largely used in the weaving 
of these fabrics. The Japanese have many proverbial expressions which 
show the high estimation in which they hold their brocades, such as: 
Kokioye Nishiki — or " Clothe yourself in brocade when you return home, 
Tzurure wo Kite mo Kokoro wa Nishiki — or " He wears rags, it is true, but 
his heart is of brocade." 

Brocaded. This term is used to describe a fabric upon the surface of 
which a figure of any kind is formed by the threads of the warp or filling be- 
ing raised in such order as to produce the pattern required. The word has 
much the same application to silk and wool textures that "damasked" has 
to linen textures, or to worsted stuffs when used for upholstering purposes. 
[See Loom, Weaving.] 

Brocatel (broc-a-tel'). A coarse or inferior brocade or figured fabric, 
commonly made of silk or cotton, or sometimes of cotton only, but having 
a more or less silky surface; used chiefly for curtains, furniture-covering, 
tapestry linings, and linings for carriages. 

Broche (bro-sha'). [From French broach, to sew or stitch], Broche 
properly means sewed or stitched; or, any style of weaving ornamented 



BRO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 41 

with threads which form a pattern on the surface in imitation of 
stitching; the term has a meaning similar to "brocaded" when applied to 
woven fabrics: as a broche shawl, a broche ribbon. [See Cashmere 
Shawls.] 

Broche Shawl (bro-sha'). A variety made in imitation of genuine 
Cashmere shawls, distinguished by its "cone" pattern, or round scroll 
work. They were first made at Paisley, Scotland, and were of a peculiar 
bluish color, and known to the trade as Paisley shawls. At present they 
are made in France, and red is the predominating color; called either 
Broche or Paisley. 

Brush Hat. The old-fashioned brush hats were made of beaver fur, 
first made into a felt cloth, and then finished with a flowing nap. This nap 
was produced in the process of sizing by being constantly "brushed" with a 
hand-brush — hence the name. The best of these usually retailed for $15. 

Buckle. A metal appliance for fastening together different articles 
and portions of dress. The origin of the buckle is clouded in a great deal 
of uncertainty, but it is known to antedate as an ornamental device for shoes 
all other contrivances. Of exactly what material they were first manufac- 
tured history does not enlighten us. In England and France, and even in 
our own country, in the year 1781, all gentlemen of tone sported on their 
shoes a large, square buckle, plated with silver, and as ladies soon adopted 
the reigning taste, "it was difficult to discover their feet, covered with an 
enormous shield of buckle, and men wondered to see the active motion 
under the massive load." 

Buckles and buttons at this time were worn of such immense size as to 
occasion the issue of a caricature entitled "Buckles and Buttons, or I'm the 
Thing, Damme!" but in 1791 the massive loads became unsupportable, and 
suddenly went out of fashion, strings for shoes being adopted. In 
consequence of this a large class of ingenious artisans in the manufacturing 
districts of England were thrown out of employment. In 1792 a deputation 
of these buckle-makers presented a petition to the Prince of Wales (after- 
ward George IV) setting forth the distressed condition of the thousands 
who had been engaged in the department of buckle making. The Prince 
promised not only to wear buckles on his own shoes, but to order the mem- 
bers of his household to do the same. But the commands of royalty were 
powerless when opposed to the mandates of fashion. 

Buckram. [Said by some etymologists to have been derived from 
bucca, a hole, from the fabric being woven loosely and open, and afterward 
gummed, calendered and dyed; by others, the fabric is said to have taken 
its title from the place of its original manufacture, Bokhara, in Tartary; 
also conjecturally referred to as having been derived from L. bouquena, 
goat's skin. Formerly spelled bokeram, bouqueran, bockaran, buckeram.] 
A coarse unbleached linen cloth, stiffened with glue or gum, used as a 
stiffening for keeping garments in a required shape, and recently also for 



42 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BUC 

binding books. Buckram was originally a very different material to that now 
known by the name. It is described in the fourteenth century as a " fine 
thinne cloth " ranking with the richest silks, and as late as the beginning 
of the sixteenth century this stuff was held good enough for lining to a 
black velvet gown for Queen Elizabeth. There can, however, be no doubt 
that buckram of a common description was early applied to a dress lining, 
as the prices on many old invoices do not show a fine material, so that the 
character of the fabric must have undergone a great change prior to the 
fourteenth century, even much more so than it has since done. 

Buckskin. A soft kind of glove leather, yellowish or blue-gray in 
color, made originally by tanning deer-skins with oil and wood-smoke, but 
now sometimes being prepared from sheepskins. At present, in its prepa- 
ration a great deal of manipulation is required, the softness of which is its 
chief characteristic, being produced by the use of either oil or brains in 
dressing it. [See Leather.] 

Buff. A kind of . thick, Uncolored leather, originally and properly 
made of the skin of the buffalo, whence its name, but since the extinction 
of this animal, made of the skins of cattle. [See Leather.] It is dressed 
so as to be as flexible as possible, and without a glazed or artificially 
colored surface. 

Buff Coat. A military coat made of buff-leather, in favor at the time 
of the English civil wars. The buff coat was commonly so thick and 
unyielding as to be considered proof against the sword, and even against a 
pistol-ball, except when fired at short range. 

Buffing. The operation of diminishing the thickness of a hide of 
leather by means of a currier's knife or splitting machine, for the purpose 
of increasing the suppleness of the leather ; hence the layer so shaved off. 

Bugle (bu ' -gle). A shiny, elongated glass bead, usually black, used 
for decorating female apparel. Bugle trimming consists of these glass 
ornaments attached to a silk or gimp foundation; similar to passamenterie 

Bullion-fringe. A fringe of thick twisted cords, such as will hang 
heavily, covered with fine gold or silver thread ; used for epaulettes and 
the trimming of uniforms. Also called bullion-embroidery . 

Bunting. A light loosely-woven single width worsted dress goods, 
woven both plain and laced. Bunting is also the material out of which all 
train flags are made, as well as National flags and signals for ships. Dis- 
tinguished from Nun's Veiling by being but single width, of coarser and 
more open texture, and composed of "worsted" while Nun's Veiling is 
"woolen." [See Wool, Flags.] 

Burlap. A coarse, heavy material made of jute, flax, hemp or man- 
lila, and used for wrappings and upholstery; outside coffee bags are made 
of burlap. [See Jute, Hemp.] 



BUR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 43 

Burl. To pick knots, loose threads, burrs, etc. from, as in finishing 
cloth. To cleanse cloth, as with fuller's earth or a similar substance. 

Buskin (bus '-kin).. [From "bore's-skin," of which they were first 
made.] A half-boot or shoe, strapped or laced to the ankle and the lower 
part of the leg, worn by the ancients. At present a low-laced, low-heeled 
slipper worn by women. 

Bustle. Derived from busk, which in the 16th century is described as 
being a "flexible strip of whalebone or other stiffened materialised by fleshy 
women to keep their stomachers down, and to stiffen their stays;" also a 
"quilted or plaited thing to keep the body straight." Bustles have been 
worn of various shapes and dimensions, at different periods, since 1841. 
At present they consist of a sort of a pad or wire spring, worn by women 
for the purpose of improving the figure, causing the folds of the skirt to 
hang gracefully, and preventing the bottom of the skirt from interfering 
with the feet in walking. 

Butcher's Linen. A coarse and heavy bleached linen material, used 
principally as a backing for shirt bosoms. 

Butter-cloth. A thin and open unsized muslin, used by dairymen to 
wrap their rolls of butter; similar to cheezecloth. 

Buttons. [Fr. bouton, from bout, end, extremity, budj. A catch of 
various forms and materials, used to fasten together the different parts of 
dress. In ancient times buttons were far from being as universally used 
as they are now. Clasps, hooks and eyes, or things made of wood, were the 
articles most generally used in fastening the two edges of garments, and 
with these rude things the people of those days had to be content. Now, 
however, buttons are made of various materials. Horn, bone, agate, india- 
rubber, mother-of-pearl, various woods and vegetable ivory are but a small 
part of the substances which have been pressed into this service; while 
for covering buttons there is used lasting, brocade, twist, velvet, silk and 
mohair. 

Button manufacture did not assume any special form until the 14th 
century, when buttons of gold and ivory were used as ornaments for the 
dress of both sexes. In England, at the commencement of the 17th cen- 
tury, the button trade had assumed formidable proportions, and large quan- 
tities of bone, steel and wooden buttons were shipped to this country. The 
first that were manufactured in the United States was in the year 1826, by 
Samuel Williston. While he was dragging along as a country store-keeper 
at East Hampton, Mass., his wife bethought her that she could cover by 
hand the wooden buttons of that time and thus earn an honest penny. From 
this humble beginning the couple advanced in their ambition until they had 
perfected machinery for covering buttons, the first employed in this coun^ 
try. From this sprang an immense factory, and then others, until Samuel 
Williston made half the buttons of the world. His factories are still run- 
ning at Leeds and East Hampton, Mass., coining wealth for the proprietors. 



44 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BUT 

There are two systems used for the measurement of buttons, the Eng- 
lish and the French. English measurement runs 14, 16,18,20, etc., "lines,'' 
while the French runs 4, 4>£, 5, 5)4, etc. An English " line " is one-fortieth 
of an inch, or 40 lines to the inch; the French "line" may be expressed 
thus .08887 of an inch. The French line measurement is said to be obso- 
lete, yet it is every day in practical use. To show in what relation the 
respective systems stand to each other, see the following: 

English Measure 18 20 22 24 26 28 
French " 5 h% 6 6^ 7 7^ 

Vegetable Ivory buttons are made in large quantities in this country, at 
Leeds, Mass., and at New York and Newark. The ivory nut, as it is called 
by the trade, is grown in the hot regions of South America. The principal 
point of shipment is Colon, on the Isthmus of Panama. Like the banana, 
the ivory nut is perennial in its native clime, and maybe found in all stages 
from the bud to the ripened nut at all seasons of the year. The nuts grow 
in great bunches of about fifty, incased in a shell, as are chestnuts in the 
burr, though the shell outwardly resembles in roughness the surface of 
a pineapple. The entire cluster of nuts in this shell is as big as a man's 
head. This shell comes off easily after the nuts are ripe. At this stage 
they fall from the trees, which are fourteen or fifteen feet in height, and are 
packed on the backs of natives to the points of shipment. These are ship- 
ped to this country and kiln-dried, sawed into slabs of the proper thickness 
from which the buttons are cut by a lathe, the holes being drilled in by a 
power lathe. One of the peculiar features of the material, in relation to 
buttons, is its susceptibility to coloring matter. It can be colored any shade 
that is desired by the manufacturers. The artistic tailors and dressmakers 
make use of this to great advantage in the adaptation of buttons to gar- 
ments, even in making up mottled goods buttons in perfect harmony with 
the material may be secured. The grain of the nut is white and of even 
texture, so that it is easily carved, sawed and worked into any desirable 
shape The trees are not farmed or raised artificially as is the banana tree, 
but grows in its natural state and in its own manner in the primeval forests, 
the same as the hickory or the chestnut or the walnut. About 4,000 tons of 
the ivory nut are brought to this country annually, and lying stacked up on 
the pier at New York resemble large hay-stacks and are interesting as illus- 
trative of the great variety of extraordinary things brought to this market 
from various parts of the world and the ingenuity of those who have clev- 
erly adapted them to the uses of mankind. Owing to the cheapness of the 
raw material, there is not more than $150,000 per annum involved in the 
traffic. 1,500 persons in New York alone are employed in handling the 
nut and manufacturing it into buttons. Unlike rubber and bone, ivory is 
not affected by heat or cold and is not liable to break in the eye. The cost 
of manufacturing is the principle item of expense, about 80 per cent of the 
cost of vegetable ivory buttons being the labor. The greatest production 
in this country was from 1880 to 1890, but the Germans having the advan- 



BUT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 45 

tage of cheaper labor are now able to successfully compete with American 
manufacture. The duty is forty per cent, fifteen per cent of it having been 
a raise under the McKinley act. 

Metal buttons are made of various materials, the variety known as gilt 
buttons being made of a mixture of copper, with a small portion of zinc or 
brass mixed with copper, common brass being unfit for gilding. The gild- 
ing is performed by means of an amalgam of quicksilver and gold. The 
buttons are cut out of large wide sheets of this metal, and the shanks are 
affixed by solder. This work is all done by machines, the process being so 
rapid that one workman can prepare 12 gross in an hour. Brass buttons 
are simply stamped out of sheet brass, and the ornaments are struck by a 
die. Plated buttons Site made out of copper, plated with silver, and are 
chiefly used in liveries and uniforms. The figures or designs upon them 
are formed by stamping with dies. The cheapest and commonest kind of > 
metal buttons are those which are stamped in pewter, and chiefly used in 
the trimming of military jackets. They are very soft, but not being in- 
tended to bear any stress, but merely to exhibit the number of the regi- 
ment or some such figure they answer a purpose. 

Upholstered buttons, or cloth covered buttons, have to undergo six 
different operations before they are turned out completed. The covering 
must first be cut out slightly larger than the size of the button. This is 
done by an ordinary die and mallet. The cutter, however, becomes so ex- 
expert, that he can punch upwards of 100 gross per day, and if he has 
whole cloth to cut from and lay it in several breadths deep, he can cut as 
high as 1000 gross daily. The next part of the button to be made is the 
tin mold, this being stamped out of a sheet of ordinary tin; these are pro- 
duced at the rate of 600 gross a day. The little tin mold next goes to a 
machine, where it has a hole cut in the center for a shank to protrude. It 
is then called a "collet," 600 gross being the daily capacity. Paper filling 
must next be cut; the machine for this is so rapid that it makes 700 revolu- 
tions a minute, punching some 15,000 gross of these cardboard wads daily # 
Making the back is the fifth process. The "collet" is placed in a mold and 
then covered with a coarse cotton cloth, upon which the cardboard filling 
is placed. This is pressed down and forms a solid button with the shanfc. 
These can be made at the rate of 90 gross daily. Lastly the cover is placed 
in another machine, the back being set in the socket of a punch which 
descends with great force, clamping the collet tightly round the completely 
finished button. Fifty gross of these can be made each day on a machine. 
Men are employed to cut the cloth and tin, but the balance of the work on 
upholstered buttons is done by girls, who earn from $6 to $7 per week. 
Various small button-making machines have been invented, by the use of 
which retail merchants can in a few moments produce first class buttons 
of any size from the same material as a dress, jacket or other garment is 
made, thus doing away with all the bother of matching shades, now so 
much a nuisance to lady customers. The cloth is cut in small squares 



46 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. BUT 

and pressed over wooden molds by the machine. The cost of the mach- 
ines vary from $6 to $10. 

Great quantities of dress buttons are now made from potatoes. It is 
not generally known, but nevertheless a fact, that if the common Irish 
potato be treated with certain acids it becomes almost as hard as stone, and 
can be used for many purposes for which horn, ivory and bone are 
employed. This quality of the button adapts it to button-making, and a 
very good grade of buttons is now made from the well known tuber. The 
potato buttons cannot be distinguished from others save by a careful exam- 
ination, and even then only by an expert, since they are colored every con- 
ceivable shade, and are every whit as good-looking as a button of bone or 
ivory. Their cheapness is their recommendation, and will, no doubt, be 
largely employed in the future. 

Shoe buttons for ladies' shoes are made of button board, which is a 
paper material in sheets about a quarter of an inch thick. These sheets 
are cut in strips one-half inch in width, by the button manufacturer, each 
sheet making 56 strips, and from each strip 100 buttons are punched, which 
equals 5,600 buttons per sheet. Four hundred sheets make a ton of button 
board, or enough to make 2,240,000 buttons. The number of buttons required 
to supply the demand of shoe manufacturers may be dimly estimated when it 
is stated that one firm alone uses 18 tons per month, producing 40,320,000 
buttons. 

Pearl buttons are made of pearl shells, or what is known as natural 
pearl, having a clear, pearly inside of various degrees of whiteness. Some 
large snail-like shells are obtained in New Zealand, others of the mother- 
of-pearl variety are found on the coasts of Australia, while the finest come 
from China and the Persian Gulf. The raw shells bring all the way from 
43 cents to $1 per pound in this market. In the first process of cutting out 
the disc for the button, the shell is held in the hand of the workman against 
a tubular saw, something like an ordinary gas pipe, and is very quickly 
sawed out. In order to do this and leave a clean and perfect edge, the saw 
must be kept very sharp, and it can readily be seen that the workman 
is called upon to use his best judgment in sawing the discs out of the shell, 
so as to get as many perfect ones as possible. From the first workman 
they go the second, who turns them in a lathe, and cuts out whatever pat- 
tern is required. Next comes boring the holes, polishing, putting on the 
shank where it is a button of that kind, and boxing, after which the article 
is ready for sale. It should be borne in mind that in all these processes 
each button has to be handled separately, and, though in many other lines 
of business wonderful improvements have been made in the direction of 
adapting machinery to special kinds of work, yet in the pearl button indus- 
try there has been little or no change for a hundred years. And as the 
tools required are of a simple kind, and the rest of the process depends 
upon experience and good judgment, it looks as if it was always destined 
to be a hand industry, and therefore peculiarly subject to outside influences 



BUT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 47 

which affect the cost of labor. Neither is there a fixed value to raw pearl 
shells, the price fluctuating daily according to supply and demand. Until 
the latter part of 1890 the bulk of pearl shirt buttons were made at Bir- 
mingham and London, England, while pearl dress buttons for the most 
part were made at Vienna, Austria. On the 1st of April, 1891, there were 
but seventeen pearl button factories in the United States. This increased 
to ninety-five in one year. Wages of button "turners" range from $18 to 
$23 per week, and boys and girls employed in finishing the goods are paid 
from $6 to $10 per week. Over 700 persons obtain a living at this industry 
in Newark, N. J., where formerly but twenty were employed. Factories 
have been located at Providence, R. I., Springfield, Mass., Philadelphia, 
New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit, and several other places, furnish- 
ing work for over 6,000 people at remunerative wages. None of these fac- 
tories existed before the tariff of 1890 was imposed, as the American work- 
man could not compete against wages of $3 and $4 a week earned by the 
Austrian button makers. The result of the tariff has been to reduce the 
imports of pearl buttons in 1891 to $200,000 against an amount of $3,500,000 
in 1890, though a large portion of this sum was for over-importations pre- 
vious to the passage of the tariff act. There are three classes of shells rec- 
ognized by manufacturers out of which pearl buttons are made: 1st. The 
Macassar, which is a pure white, and from which "three-quarter super,'' 
"super," and "extra super" buttons are made. 2d. The Mussell, of which 
are manufactured the "half-fine grades." 3d. The Manilla, which produces 
the lowest grade goods. The Macassar is a pure, clear shell; the Mussell 
has a white inside with a yellowish or blackish back, while the Manilla is a 
dirty yellowish color throughout. Smoked pearl buttons are made of dark 
colored shells. The McKinly tariff on pearl buttons is 2% cents per line 
per gross and 25 per cent advalorem, equal to a straight rate of about 400 
per cent. The United States consume 12,500,000 gross annually. New 
York manufacturers have attempted to import from Europe what is known 
as "pearl blanks," round discs without grooving or eyes. Except that they 
are not pierced or shanked they correspond in appearance with the ordi- 
nary pearl button of commerce. The manufacturers assert that these arti- 
cles are not buttons, but merely "manufactures of shell," upon which the 
duty is only 40 per cent advalorem, claiming that the only thing known as 
a button in trade and common use is an article made with eyes or a shank. 
It was decided by the courts, however, that the ball or blank, or other spe- 
cial form of pearl, fashioned by skilled labor, is in fact a button, and that 
shanking, piercing or grooving the button is simply an auxiliary process, 
inasmuch as having reached such a stage of manufacture they were unsuit- 
able for use except as buttons. As far as the tariff is now concerned a 
"blank" is a button. 

Agate buttons used to be manufactured in England exclusively, but 
they have lost the industry. It came about in this way. A smart French- 
man, F. Bapterosses by name, went to England and hired to the agate but- 



48 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAD 

ton makers as a common workman, thoroughly studied the business and 
got possession of the secrets. He then returned to France, where with the 
aid of the French Government he constructed a large plant and was ena- 
bled to produce agates at half the cost of the English goods, which of course 
ruined the latter industry. This man accumulated an immense fortune out 
of the agate button business and gave employment to thousands of French 
workmen, and was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor by his Govern- 
ment in recognition of his services to mankind — that is, the French part of 
it. He visited the Centennial in this country in 1876. Agate buttons are 
made of a mineral substance known as feldspar, found in the roofs of cav- 
erns at Briare, France. The raw material is taken to the factory and ground 
into a paste, after which it is molded into buttons and baked; they are then 
sewed on cards by machinery. On all of Bapterosses' goods will be found 
the letters "F. B." printed on the back of each card in script letters. These 
are the Frenchman's initials. They are the best goods made. The 
protective tariff on them is 25 per cent, advalorem, but there is not 
an agate button made in North America. There is only one other 
agate factory in the world, and that is in Germany, but its pro- 
duct is not so good, the Germans being unable to procure feldspar that 
is perfectly clear and white. They are branded on the back " R. C." and 
on inspection it will be noticed that they are not so well burned as the "F. 
B." goods. These specks seem to be a matter the Germans cannot over- 
come. The common milk-white agate buttons are termed lentille, it being 
a beveled edge. The same shape is made in a pearly color, and called 
pearly lentille. Printed agates are printed lentilles. Caneles are agates 
with little canals around the edge. Bourrelet is a raised edge, and cuvette 
is a concave button. These are all 4-hole, and are all made both "lentille" 
and " pearly lentille," with the exception of the printed, which is made in 
lentille only. Pearly lentille is the only variety made with but two holes. 
These are the staple lines. In addition there are numberless fancy varie- 
ties used especially for wash goods and which have, to a certain extent 
taken the place of the expensive pearl button. 

Caddis (cad ' -is). A coarse serge. The variegated stuff worn by the 
Highlanders of Scotland. 

Cadet Gloves. See Gloves. 

Calender. A machine consisting of two or more steel cylinders revolv- 
ing very nearly in contact, between which is passed a woven fabric, for 
finishing by pressure the surface of linen, cotton and other texile fabrics; 
often aided by steam heat communicated from the interior of the cylinders. 
The word calendering is a corruption of cylindering. The object is to give 
cloth a perfectly smooth, even and equal surface, and sometimes, to produce 
a glaze, as in jaconets, sateens, silesias, etc. The domestic processes of 
starching and ironing afford a simple illustration of the object and result 
of calendering. Before the final calendering the fabric is flatly smoothed 



CAL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 49 

by passing over warm cylinders. The fabric is then simply passed between 
plain cylinders, which produces the desired effect by flattening the threads. 
By means of a cylinder with a pattern raised upon it, the amount of this 
flattening can be made unequal on different parts of the cloth, producing a 
watered effect. Glazing is produced by the rollers being made to move 
with different velocities, so that one side of the fabric is rubbed as well as 
pressed by the surface of the roller moving the most rapidly. A copper 
roller is used for glazing, so hot that if the machine stops it burns the 
goods. 

Calfskin. The best calfskin is tanned in France, with the liquor ex- 
tracted from the bark of the evergreen oak, a species indigenous to that 
country. One single tannery in France employs 12,000 workmen and has 
been in existence over 100 years. This establishment ships its product to 
every clime and country on the globe, even to every city in the United 
States where there is a wholesale leather house or a boot and shoe factory. 
One of the reasons for the superior quality of French calfskin is that fully 
90 per cent of the raw hides the tanneries receive come from England, Ire- 
land, Italy and other populous European countries, where the calves are 
stall-fed. It being a well known fact among tanners that range or grass-fed 
animals produce the poorest and most inferior hides for making fine leather. 
Another reason is they employ the most expert and skillful labor that can 
be ootained, and make no endeavor to shorten the time requisite for prop- 
erly tanning the leather. 

Calico. The word "calico" has a queer origin. Many centuries ago 
the first monarch of the province of Malabar gave to one of his chiefs, as 
a reward for distinguished services, his sword and all the land within the 
limit of which acock crowing at a certain temple could be heard. From 
this circumstance the little town which grew up in the center of this terri- 
tory was called Calicoda, or the cock crowing. Afterward it was called 
Calicut, and from this place the first cotton goods were imported into 
England, bearing the name of calico. 

The printing of calico has come to be a wonderful art-science. In 
this country there are two classes of calico printers — those who make the 
cloth, print it, and sell direct to jobbers, and those who merely print the 
cloth for jobbers or commission merchants at piece-price. "Grey" print 
cloth may be purchased in New York or Liverpool even by retail dealers, 
who in turn may take it to the calico printer and have the patterns put on. 
Ordinary grey cloth, 64x64, usually sells for 3 and a fraction cents per 
yard; and 56x60 cloth at 3 cents, or a fraction under 3 cents, per yard; while 
the cost of printing the same varies from one to two cents per yard. One 
pound of raw cotton will make 8% yards of 64x64 calico cloth. The tariff 
on imported calico is 4}i cents per square yard. The following table 
shows the price of the best print cloth and standard sheeting in compari- 
son with. the price of cotton for four years: 



50 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAL 

1889. 1890. 1891. 1892. 

Middling cotton Iltfc. I2c. 8>£c. 7 5-16c. 

Standard sheeting.. 7#c. 7#c. 7c. 6>£c. 

Print cloths, 64x64 3 15-16c. 3^c. 2.91c. 3^c. 

"Standard" sheeting weighs 2.85 yards to the pound. 

When the grey cloth is received, fresh from the hands of the weaver, 
it is put through a critical examination for flaws and imperfections in 
weaving. The webs of cloth that pass inspection are then handed over to 
a girl who stitches the ends of several together, forming a required con- 
tinuous length, 300 yards being the minimum run a printer cares to accept 
to one coloring of a pattern. Upon each printing piece, of say 300 yards, 
are then placed certain marks for purposes of identification, and which 
will be visible and recognizable after printing. 

The next process is singeing, the purpose of which is to remove all 
surface unevenness and fuzz, the existence of which after printing would 
leave a blotched and defective appearance, a completely smooth face being 
absolutely necessary. Singeing to the uninitiated is probably the most 
perplexing process through which the cloth passes ; at first sight it seems 
that nothing will save the cloth from destruction. The cloth passes over 
and in passing is pressed against semi-circular platinum plates heated to 
almost white heat by the passing through them of electric currents. Great 
caution is necessary in the folding of the cloth preparatory to its going 
through this fiery ordeal ; if any hitch should occur to prevent its running 
freely and smoothly its ruin is inevitable. The rate at which it is made to 
travel, singes about 125 yards of cloth in one minute. 

The next operation the cloth undergoes is that of bleaching, which is 
divided into two branches : 1st, "print-bleaching", in the case of which the 
goods are bleached as a preliminary process to being printed all over ; 
and 2nd, "white-bleaching" which applies to goods to be finished "white", 
or unprinted, or merely lined or dotted as in the case of calico shirting or 
percales. In "white" bleaching it is only necessary to satisfy the eye, but 
in "print-bleaching" the cloth must be chemically pure, otherwise the colors 
in the subsequent printing process would be dull and blotchy, the colors 
refusing to combine evenly or perfectly. 

The cloth next goes through the process technically known as " sour- 
ing", a series of alternate and repeated acid treatments and washings. A 
solution of sulphuric or muriatic acid and one of chloride of lime are in 
turn used. None of these "souring" processes can be dispensed with, 
though their tendency is to weaken or rot the cloth. The chief cause of 
tender printed calico is carelessness at this point, too strong a solution of 
acid being used, or the boiling and washing-out afterward of the acid not 
being sufficiently thorough. The cloth is now as free from foreign matters 
as it is possible to get it, and contains only the identification marks referred 
to, and after being wound upon rollers is ready for starching. 

The object of starching is to fill up the spaces between the threads in 
order that the pattern may be imprinted plainer. What ought to be, and 



CAL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 51 

by reputable factories really is used, is pure starch, either of corn or 
potatoes, made into a stiff mucilage and blued with indigo. The cloth 
passes ever a roller into a long trough of starch, and as it comes out is 
caught between a pair of rollers and the superfluous starch squeezed out 
and thrown back into the trough, the cloth passing on to the drying 
machine. Many factories use a great deal more starch or " sizing " than is 
necessary, in order to give light-weight cloth an appearance of heaviness. 
The cloth now being ready for printing, the design is selected and the 
rollers engraved. These rollers are of polished copper, cylindrical in form, 
the pattern being engraved around its entire circumference and from end 
to end, a different roller being required for each color or shade in the 
pattern. In establishments of any considerable extent many thousands of 
these copper cylinders are kept in stock, involving an enormous outlay of 
money. Colors as applied to cotton printing are of two kinds, substantive 
and adjective. The substantive or topical colors are such as will unite 
immediately with the cotton, and the printing of such colors on the cloth is 
called the steaming process. The adjective colors are those that will not 
unite with the cotton without the use of a mordant, it being a well known 
fact that cotton in itself has no affinity with dye, but must be induced to 
cling to it through a chemical medium. A mordant is the chemical medium 
or foundation over which the proper colors are to be printed. Alumnia 
and oxide of iron are the mordants most commonly used for fixing of the 
color in calico printing; mordants are liquid in form and almost colorless. 
As the mordant must be applied to the cloth through the medium of the 
engraved pattern on the roller, a quantity of fugitive color, (one that is 
easily washed out) is added that the outline of the pattern may be dis- 
cernible, and this is called sightening color, because it enables the operator 
to see that his pattern is being properly produced. Pressing against each 
engraved roller is another roller of wood covered with cloth, called the "furn- 
ishing" roller, which transmits the color from a reservoir beneath it and in 
which it revolves. The mordants having been put into the reservoirs, a 
nice arrangement has to be made so that in fixing the engraved rollers the 
pattern may be exactly adjusted for the transmission of the color the cloth. 
This is done with mathematical precision and without a hairbreadth of vari- 
ation; these printing machines are of various sizes according to the number 
of colors to be printed, some being capable of holding 16 sets of rollers. 
The cloth now begins its journey entering at the rear of the machine, where 
it is dealt with by the back-tenter, whose duty it is to see that it is carefully 
and evenly delivered. When it passes from the rollers upon which it is 
placed it travels along with a back cloth moving beneath it, and so finds 
its way to the blanket with which and the back cloth it moves until it is 
received between the drum and the engraved roller, in this part of the 
process receiving the mordant. When it has passed over the mordant 
rollers the cloth moves out in front of the machine in view of the printer, 
who watches to see that the pattern has been accurately rendered. The cloth 



52 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAL 

has now to be dried, which is performed by means of steam heated 
cylinders. When in a dry condition, it is subjected to a process known as 
"ageing," which extracts from it to a great extent the acetic acid, leaving 
the pattern firmly fixed in the fibre of the cloth in what is called a free 
base, which is the true mordant stain or substructure upon which the final 
colors are to be built. The process following this is "dunging;" its object is 
to completely wash off the remainder of the acid, the sightening colors, and 
any other loose matter at the same time, leaving the mordant in its pure 
form in the fibre. The material that has been found most conducive to 
these ends, strange as it may seem, is cow's dung; its action is a subject of 
conjecture, and has never been defined in precise chemical terms. The 
final process prior to the reception of the coloring matter is a thorough 
washing in soft water. This leaves but a faint, scarcely distinguishable 
outline of the pattern, but upon this will be built up the desired color or 
colors. We will now visit the dye-beck and be introduced to a substance 
called alizarine which produces in its action an almost magical effect. 
Here may be seen the long piece of cloth that has gone through the process 
already described, with scarcely an outline of pattern visible plunged into 
a vessel contaning alizarine, (a yellowish-brown fluid) and after immersion 
brought out full fledged calico, displaying the different effects of colored 
patterns, reds, pinks, heliotropes, purples, etc., according to the various 
printings of the mordants. 

This alizarine, the effect of which is here described, is a coal tar product, 
and to the uninformed observer the revelation of the results of the produc- 
tion of colors from coal tar, is remarkable. To return to the dye-beck, a 
bath of the alizarine is formed by the dyer, heated to boiling point; through 
this the cloth is passed, coming out of it the required color or colors. The 
next operation is called "clearing" and consists in boiling the cloth in 
soap and water; this has the effect of brightening the colors. When 
cleared, the cloth is taken to undergo certain finishing operations. It is 
first run over a machine to open it to its full width; it is then passed be- 
tween cylinders for the purpose of calendering it; thence to the folding 
machine to be made up in piece form, when it is ready for market. 

In the above description the pattern we are supposed to have followed, 
is printed on a white ground; to effect the production of a white pattern on 
a dark ground, the mordant is made to cover the whole surface of the 
cloth. The pattern, such as small leaves, sprigs, dots, etc., is printed with 
acid which discharges the mordant and leaves the pattern white; Simpson's 
mourning prints are good examples of this work. Such styles are known 
as acid discharges. Into these white spaces other colors may be printed 
if desired. This latter process is called "padding." 

One requisite in fast-color printing is a plentiful supply of water as 
soft as possible, and free from iron and magnesia in undue proportions, 
which would prevent the proper action of the chemicals. In this respect 
the United States has been particularly favored by nature in the districts 



CAL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 53 

selected for calico-printing. The wealthy and enterprising corporations 
engaged in this trade, having the finest raw cotton in the world, possessing 
the newest and most perfect machinery invented, and an enormous and 
ever-increasing home market, are enabled to command the services of the 
most skillful operators, the most enthusiastic and devoted students of art v 
and the most scientific investigators in the sphere of chemistry. Lan- 
cashire, England, was long regarded as the native home of calico-printer, 
but as is often the case, the child which has wandered to a far-off land has 
eclipsed the achievements of the parent, and thus to-day America stands 
unrivaled in this, the art-department of commerce. 

Calico-printing originated in India, where the abundance of dye-stuffs 
and the preference for cotton fabrics naturally lead to the development 
of this process. The name also originated in India from the port of Cali- 
cut, from which over a century ago the fabric was first imported to 
European countries. From about the year 1800 the United States has been 
familiar with these goods, through their production in England, and was 
almost entirely dependent upon the mother country for all our manufac- 
tures in this line. Up to 1840 English calico or prints covered in a great 
variety of printed styles, were produced by various distinct processes. 
Madderwork, [see Madder and Turkey Red] however, was the chief 
product, and through its durability deservedly has maintained to the 
present time its superiority. The nature of the process, however, prevents 
the variety of effects which the modern process of coloring has been brought 
to so high a degree of excellence. Indigo work [see Indigo Blue] also 
has been largely employed of late years, and holds rank with madders for 
fastness of color, but lacks variety the same as madders. Aniline colors 
date with the second half of the century and are coal tar, or petroleum 
extracts. 

Within the memory of the older dry goods merchants, English prints 
were the chief goods of this class in dealers' stocks in this country. 
"Hoyles" purples, chocolate chintzes, "Potter's plate work," and other 
familiar English prints supplied the larger part of the goods consumed 
here. Among the early American printers who are high standard, were 
the Merrimack, Cocheco, Sprague, and Richmond companies. All these 
were producers of madder work, and every country woman before the 
Civil War was as pronounced in her preference for one or the other of 
these, as the women of to-day are for their favorite make of spool cotton. 
These printers adopted as high standard a cloth counting seventy-two 
threads warp and weft to the inch, width twenty -five inches; but later on 
when printers increased and the English article was driven out of the 
market, the standard became sixty-four threads both ways, to the inch, and 
twenty-four inches wide, and so remains to this day. 

The so-called Chintzes of early days were English or French wide cal- 
coes, printed by hand-block processes, and ruled at prices so high that the 
dames of early days prized their chintz gowns more than those of today their 



54 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAM 

silk dresses. The production of calicoes reached its greatest extent in the 
seventies. Since then the increase of colored woven cottons, such as ging- 
hams and chambrays, and later satteens, have materially diminished the 
use of calico, (per capita) and many printeries are now stopped that then 
yielded their millions of yards to the annual product. The chief producers 
of today are the Merrimack, Cocheco, Manchester, Pacific, Simpson and 
Windsor, each of which produce fancy and staple work, while American, 
Arnold and Washington are the main producers of oil and indigo styles. 

Cambrasiiie (cam ' -bra-zene). A name given to batiste and cambric of 
fine quality. 

Cambric. The town of Cambria, France, was long famous for its man- 
ufactures of fine muslins. Here in 1520, was first made a fine thin muslin 
of pure linen, called cambric in compliment to the city. This fabric was 
much used for the fine ruffs [see Ruffs] of that period, as well as for ker- 
chiefs, etc. As long ago as 1588, 60,000 pieces of linen cambric per annum 
were made at Cambria. The Scotch were the first people to imitate the 
the linen cambric in cotton, and termed it cambric-muslin. It is made of 
fine cotton yarn, hard twisted and highly calendered, in width 36 inches. 
There is also a cheap cotton fabric manufactured for dress linings, called 
respectively "glove-finished" and "glazed" cambric, width 21 inches.. 

Cameline (cam'-e-lin). A fabric used centuries ago as a material for 
dress. It is commonly said to have been made of camel's hair; but as it is 
repeatedly in old invoices mentioned as a cheap stuff, it is probable that it 
was an imitation of the genuine Eastern fabric, [see Camlet.] Some 
authorities think this fabric was identical with what we now call Cashmere. 

Camel's Hair. The fiber known as Camel's hair comes from Southern 
Asiatic Russia, Tartary, and Africa; the quality from the latter country is 
the finest. Its native color is the light brown as seen in the goods made 
from it, and is its most distinctive feature. In preparing camel's hair for 
weaving, it is separated into "tops-long, coarse hairs, and "noils" — the short 
fine, curly ones — by combing, precisely as mohair, alpaca and other comb- 
ing wools are treated. The "tops" are used for coarse cloths. The staple 
of the "noils" is about one inch in length, and the feeling extremely soft 
and silky. It is the noils only that is used in underwear, hosiery, dress 
fabrics, shawls, etc. Camel's hair is often mixed with wool or cotton to 
make various grades of goods. Good grades of raw "noils" sell for 60 cents 
per pound. It is not unreasonable to suppose that camel's hair will at no 
distant day become a fibre of common use in the United States. The 
camel is numerous over an immense area of the earth; he is a large animal 
and his coat is heavy; the globe is constantly being ransacked for new and 
superior materials for clothing mankind and for decorating his home. 
Until within the last few years, camel's hair fabrics have been very high- 
priced, but as the advantages possessed by this material came to be ap- 
preciated the demand for raw material was proportionately increased. A 



CAM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 55 

steady demand by the manufacturers lead to a larger production and sup- 
ply; competition is developed, and these causes have lowered the former 
high prices until now camel's hair can be bought as cheaply as fine wool 
fabrics. 

Camel's Hair Shawls. The cashmere shawl, which is made of the 
fine hair of the Cashmere goat, is sometimes erroneously called Camel's 
hair. The high price of these shawls is due, not to the cost of the raw 
materials, but to the fact that each one is a splendid work of art, that is 
slowly and patiently wrought and sold as great pictures are sold, for a 
price befitting their artistic worth. 

Camlet. A rich fabric used for dress as early as the thirteenth cen- 
tury. It was more costly and finer than cameline, and is frequently men- 
tioned as being in use down to the end of the seventeenth century. At pres- 
ent a very durable, plain woolen cloth for cloaks is termed camlet. All the 
kinds of camlet are in a certain sense imitations of Oriental camel's hair 
cloth, which is characterized by the straggling "top" hairs over the surface. 
They are made of hair, especially of Angora goat hair, with wool or silk, 
and present a veined or wavy appearance. 

Canton Flannel. A cotton cloth napped heavily on one side, used 
chiefly for under garments and bandages. Canton flannel received its 
name from Canton, China, on account of having been first imported from 
that city. [See Teasling and Napping.] 

Canvas. [From L. Cannabis, hemp.] Originally canvas meant any 
coarse texture woven of hempen thread. Evolution has corrupted the 
pronunciation to plain canvas, and changed the material to cotton and 
linen. At present it is known as unbleached cotton or linen cloth, never 
twilled, but always plain-woven, used for tailoring purposes, tents, sails, etc. 
Honeycomb, Java, Penelope, Aida, Railroad and Congress, are varieties of 
canvas, woven in small square meshes, used for working fancy embroi- 
dered toilet articles with the needle. Also a carefully woven linen fabric 
used as a surface for oil paintings. It is prepared by stretching it tightly 
on long frames and covering it with one or two coats of neutral colored 
paint. Four kinds are known to the trade: Single Prime, Smooth, Roman 
and Twilled. 

Cap. See Hats and Caps; Baby Caps. 

Cape. A circular covering for the shoulders and adjacent parts, either 
separate or attached to the top of a garment. Any short circular garment 
hanging from the sholders, without arms, worn for protection against the 
weather. 

Capote. A loose, roomy cloak for ladies, properly with a cape and 
hood, but without sleeves, made of light cloth and covering the person 
completely, reaching nearly to the ground. 

Cappadine (cap'-a-din). A sort of silk flock taken from the upper 



56 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAP 

part of the silkworm's cocoon after the true silk has been wound off, used 
for shag in making rugs. 

Capuchin (cap'-u-chin). A large loose hood worn by the women of 
tne 18th century; also a hooded cloak of the same period. 

Cardigan Jacket. A coarse, heavy, rib-knitted worsted or cotton jacket 
for men's and boys' wear, deriving its name from the town of Cardigan, 
Cardigan County, England, 240 miles north-west of London. A "size" in 
cardigan jackets is 2 inches, the numbers ranging from 1 small to 7 large, 
being equivalent to 34 to 46. 

Carding. The process of opening and combing wool, flax, hemp, cot- 
ton, for the purpose of disentangling the fibers, cleansing from extraneous 
matter, separating the coarser parts, and making fine and soft for spinning. 
Upon the successful performance of this operation much of the beauty of 
the manufactured material depends. Carding was once necessarily per- 
formed by hand, coarse wire brushes being used. The old-time hand cards 
consisted of short wires passed slantingly through leather strips, which 
were then nailed upon a board. Two of these brushes were always used by 
the operator, one in each hand. The first carding engine was patented in 
England in 1748 by Lewis Paul, and afterward greatly improved by Ark- 
wright. In the earlier carding machines the fibers were fed by hand to a 
cylinder upon which "cards" were laid in strips parallel to the axis, and 
were removed from these strips by hand as they became full. In modern 
cotton-carding machines a loose roll of fibers, called a lap, is placed in 
guides which deliver it to the feed-roll, on passing through which it is 
seized by the card-teeth of the main cylinder. Other small cylinders suc- 
cessfully remove the fibers from, and deliver them to, the main cylinder, all 
the while getting them more and more in the desired order. The tangles 
and knots, which are not loosened by the action of these cylinders, project 
beyond the teeth of the main cylinder and are caught by top-cards from 
which they are removed and cleared by hand. The original lap, finally 
drawn together into a ribbon or sliver, traverses a funnel or trumpet and is 
passed between successive pairs of rollers, which draw out and condense 
the sliver and deliver it to the drawing-frame where it is doubled and 
drawn preparatory to spinning. [See Spinning.] For fine work the oper- 
ation of carding is repeated. The principle of the wool-carding machine 
is identical with that of the cotton-carding machine, being chiefly distin- 
guished from the latter by a great number of small cylinders called urchins. 
Wool fibers are always oiled to prevent felting and facilitate carding. 
[See Felting, Wool, Cotton, Linen.] 

Cardinal. A member of the Sacred College, a body of Roman Catholic 
ecclesiastics who rank in dignity next to the Pope and act as his counselors 
in the government of the church. About the middle of the 18th century 
these cardinal priests wore a short cloak of deep scarlet to distinguish their 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 57 

office, hence arose the color now known as cardinal red; at present, however 
a rich, deep-red color, somewhat less vivid than scarlet. 

Carpets. A heavy woven or felted fabric, usually of wool, but also of 
cotton, hemp, straw, etc., used as a floor covering, made in breadths to be 
sewed together and tacked to the floor. The word is supposed by some to 
have been originally derived from Cairo, a city in Egypt, but more proba- 
bly from the Latin carpeta, woolen cloth, through carpere, to pluck wool. 
Formerly the carpet was in one piece, like the present Persian carpet, and 
was sold (as it still is in the East) for covering beds, couches, tables, etc., 
and for hangings. The first woven carpets were produced in Egypt, Baby- 
lonia, Persia and Hindustan, whence they were introduced into Europe, 
where they are supposed to have been first manufactured by the French in 
the year 1600, and next in England in the reign of James I, about 15 years 
later. In Fuller's Church History of England, published in 1556, it is stated 
that "private men's halls were hung with leather cloths; their tables and 
beds were covered with capes (mantles) instead of carpets and coverlets." 

The earlier fashion of floor covering was a spread of sweet rushes or 
straw, and it is only within comparatively modern times that fabrics have 
been used for that purpose. Down to the period of the Valois Kings of 
France (1300 to 1400), as shown in many paintings, the practice was to strew 
the floors with rushes, hay, sweet smelling herbs, flowers and foliage. This 
custom prevailed until the time when velvet-pile or ornamental carpets 
came into use and the looms of Europe succeeded in imitating them. The 
strewing of the floors then gave place to the velvet fabric. The manufac- 
ture of carpets is traced in the records of French Monastic Orders as far 
back as the 10th and 11th centnries; but in all likelihood these were merely 
embroidered and not woven fabrics and instead of being in general use 
were only found in exceedingly rare instances. The actual manufacture of 
carpets in Europe is assigned to the reign of Henry the IV of France, be- 
tween 1589 and 1610, and is said to have been introduced there direct from 
Persia. Carpets may be described as migratory manufactures, as in almost 
every instance, the industry after being successfully established in a town, 
has been taken elsewhere, the carpet still retaining, however, the name of 
the town where it was first made. Thus, Axminster carpets which were first 
made at Axminster, England, are now produced in Glasgow, and the Wil- 
ton factories long ago transferred their business from Wilton to Kilmarnock; 
Kidderminster carpets are no longer made at Kidderminster, but instead in 
Scotland and at Yorkshire, England; while Brussels carpets which were 
once made exclusively at Brussels, Belgium, are now made the wide world 
over. In Asia, where carpets were first invented, they are seldom used ex- 
cept to sit or sleep upon, thus their use even has been perverted. 

Prior to the American Revolution, woven floor coverings, with the 
exception of domestic rag carpets, were almost unknown in this country. 
A few "Scots" carpets from the "other side" had found their way into some 



58 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAR 

private city houses, but such a rarity were these considered that country 
people, on being ushered into apartments where they were laid, instinct- 
ively tip-toed around them, in awe lest they should soil them. Ten years 
later, it appears by early newspapers, small importations were being made. 
In an advertisement in the New York Gazette of June 30, 1760, a firm states 
that they will sell among other goods at their store in Smith street, some 
"Scots" carpets. In 1761 the same firm advertises Turkey carpets, and in 
1763 both English and Scots carpets. In 1776 the only floor covering in 
general use was the rag carpet before mentioned, made with a stout yarn 
warp supplied by farm-house spinning wheels. Then ensued the long war 
of the Revolution, and the consequent commercial depression. The ma- 
jority of the people, possessed of but little wealth before the war, were 
now in no condition of temper or purse to encourage the importation of 
English goods. Before the close of the year 1791, it is said, the first car- 
pet factory in the United States was erected by Wm. P. Sprague at Phila- 
delphia. To-day the annual product of that city alone, if laid in line, 
would almost girdle the globe. The first carpet made by the Philadelphia 
mill was a hand-made, finger-tufted fabric, designed for the United States 
Senate chamber. Attracting the attention of Alexander Hamilton, it 
induced him in his report on finance for that year to allude to the new home 
industry, and to recommend as an encouraging measure, the imposition of 
a small duty on foreign made carpets. There soon sprang up in Philadel- 
phia and elsewhere small works for the production of two-ply, (or, as they 
were called, "Kidderminsters,") three-ply ingrains and Venetian carpets. 
In 1800 Jacquard [see Jacquard,] invented the simple, yet wonderful 
machine which has always borne his name, its first application being to the 
manufacture of figured goods. In the course of a few years a number of 
factories were started. In 1825 a carpet works was in full operation at 
Medway, Mass., which later merged into a company now second to none in 
the world — the Lowell. Up to 1840 the weaving of carpets of all descrip- 
tions was performed by hand. The attempt had been repeatedly made in 
England to adapt the power-loom to ingrain-weaving, but without success. 
About this time, Erastus Brigham Bigelow, a young but already successful 
inventor, turned his attention to carpet weaving, and was trying, with 
small success, to interest carpet manufacturers and obtain the pecuniary 
aid for his experiments in weaving ingrains by power. The object sought 
for was a loom that could make rapidly a carpet of smooth, even surface, 
good, regular selvedge, and figures that would match perfectly. In weav- 
ing by hand the weaver can only approximate to regularity of figures by 
the closest attention to his work and the exercise of superior skill and 
judgment. Mr Bigelow's improved method of producing figures that 
would match by steam power, was patented in 1845. The same machinery 
was found to be adapted to the weaving of Brussels and tapestry, the 
weaving of which by power had previously been considered an impossi- 
bility. In 1840 ingrains were being woven at Lowell by hand looms at the 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 59 

rate of eight yards per day. With the adaptation of power forty yards per 
day could be produced. The rate of increase in Brussels was from four 
yards per day to twenty yards per day, and in Axminster from 
one and a half yards to fifteen. The application of steam not only 
economized time and labor, but it improved these fabrics until they sur- 
passed the best of their kind in any other part of the world. The new 
invention not only revolutionized the weaving departments of carpet fac- 
tories, but infused new life into the industry of the whole country, 
building up small villages of a few hundred inhabitants into prosperous 
towns, numbering their populations by thousands. 

Carpets may be divided into two general classes: one, a double fabric 
consisting essentially of two distinct webs woven at the same time, and 
held firmly together by the weft threads, showing a different pattern upon 
either side. The other general variety have the raised pile npon one side, 
like that of velvet. 

Ingrain Carpet consists of a cotton or wool warp with a wool filling, 
and is woven in strips one yard wide. It is composed of two distinct webs 
interwoven together at one operation, and is therefore a double or two-ply 
carpet. Three-ply carpet is composed of three distinct webs, which by 
interlacing and interchanging their threads produce a different pattern on 
each side, and at the same time permitting much greater variety of color, 
with a corresponding increase of thickness and durability in the texture. 
The best quality of all-wool "Extra Super" ingrain has 1080 warp threads 
to the yard, 30 to the inch; and thirteen and a half pairs of filling-threads to 
the inch. This is the largest number of filling-threads beaten into any 
"extra super" carpet made on a power loom. In some patterns these 
threads are doubled and twisted to produce certain effects in color. To 
make cheaper qualities of carpets these filling-threads are lessened a half 
pair at a time until they are reduced to six pair to the inch, which latter 
grade is about the cheapest quality made under the title of all-wool ingrain. 
Thus the quality of ingrain carpets is determined by the number of pairs 
of filling-threads per inch, and is known in trade as 6, 8, 10 up to 13^ pairs 
per inch. This is similar to the manner of indicating the quality of Brus- 
sels and tapestry by the number of "cords" or "wires" per inch. "Twelve- 
pair Supers" (or mediums) contain twelve double woolen threads to the inch 
in the filling, and 960 warp threads to the yard. This grade is usually pre- 
ferred by consumers on account of its being all-wool and holding its color 
better — although as a matter of fact they are not as strong as the best 
"Extra Super" with wool filling and cotton warp. These latter have the 
same number of threads as the all-wool Extra Super. Wool-filling ingrain 
carpets are not made in lower grades than 8-pairs to the inch. Union Extra 
Supers were first made of cheap wool and cotton carded together for the 
high colors, and while the filling-threads were part wool and part cotton, 
the warp was all of cotton. At present, competition has so cheapened them, 
that they are mostly all cotton. All grades below this variety are made of 



60 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAR 

cotton, or cotton and shoddy-wool termed in trade 12-, 10-, 8|-, 7- and 6-pair 
cottons. Some of the finest grades of ingrain carpets now manufactured 
are copied after the most artistic patterns of Body and Tapestry Brussels, 
both in color and design. In England ingrain carpets are called Kidder- 
minster, while in Scotland they are termed Scotch carpets. 

Ingrain is a term used in connection with many textile fabrics mean- 
ing dyed before woven, that is, dyed in the grain or thread before the oper- 
ation of weaving, in distinction from printed or stamped fabrics. 

Brussels, or Body Brussels as it is sometimes called, was first manu- 
factured in Brussels, Belgium, in the year 1710. In 1720 they were first 
produced in England by some French Huguenot weavers who many 
years before had been driven out of France by the revocation of the edict 
of Nantes. In regard to the annulling of this edict which had been in force 
for nearly one hundred years, and the consequent exodus of the Huguenots 
to England and other countries it has been well said: "Nothing short of a 
great history could tell how the manufactures of all European countries 
were improved and stimulated by the peaceful incursions of over a million 
of these steadfast, industrious and highly-skilled artisan refugees. They 
were the thriftiest and readiest hands in France; they carried the arts and 
taste which were at that time the special gift of their country to every city 
and country in Europe and America. They crowded into the armies which 
were arrayed against their oppressors, they helped to man the ships which 
destroyed the navy of France; they planted their industries in a hundred 
places, and gave wealth and prosperity to other lands. No discovery 
whether of science or adventure, no victory, whether over inanimate matter 
or adverse forces, has had a greater influence upon the fortunes of 
England than the signing of the decree which, intended to coerce 
these worthy artisans wrought more disaster upon its authors." A 
number or these religious refugees settled at Wilton, England, 
and in the course of time began the weaving of carpets. They 
obtained a royal charter and formed themselves into a corporate body for 
their mutual protection. One of the peculiar terms of this charter forbade 
the weaving of carpets anywhere within ten miles of the little town of Wil- 
ton; thus early was the "protection of home industries" inaugurated. It 
is easy to see how the carpets became known as "Brussels," without doubt 
from the city where they were first made, and also "Royal Wilton"— 
Wilton from the town, and Royal from the charter. When borders came to 
be more extensively used they were stock numbered the same as the carpets 
to which they belonged. Frequently there was a stair carpet, also, which 
matched the carpet and border, and had the same stock number. These 
were then and are to this day distinguished by the terms, "Body" 
" Border " and " Stair." Body Brussels is a very superior texture, com- 
posed of a linen back and a woolen pile, having a rich, corded appearance. 
The quality of Brussels and Tapestry carpet is partially determined by the 
number of these cords per inch, varying from 8 the cheapest to 16 the 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 61 

best. The surface of a Brussel carpet is composed of loops of worsted 
yarns packed closely together. When any one loop is formed the par- 
ticular worsted thread of which the loop is a portion sinks beneath the 
linen or cotton cross-thread (weft) and remains with other threads in the 
body of the fabric until it is required to form another loop on the surface. 
These surface loops are held in position by the cross-threads (weft). Not 
being tied or knotted should any individual loop be caught or pulled by a 
sharp point in brush, broom, boot or claw, then the worsted underneath 
will be drawn above the surface and the loose ends will form what is called 
a case of "sprouting." 

These loops which are collectively called the pile, constitute the figure 
or pattern, and are produced or raised from the linen back, by inserting a 
series of wires between the linen foundation and the superficial yarn, 
and looping the yarn tightly over each wire, which leaves a distinct row or 
"cord." These wires are withdrawn as the weaving proceeds, and there is 
left a smooth, looped surface as seen in all Brussels carpets. The colors are 
usually limited to five, (called 5-frame or 6-frame, as the case ma»y be) 
though in the best goods six colors are introduced. These are warp-dyed 
and are carried entirely through the linen background from end to end of 
the piece of carpet. The best qualities are usually 5-frame, that is, the 
pattern is composed of five different colors. Each is a continuous layer of 
thread dyed in the yarn, running from end to end of the web, which rises 
to the surface at close intervals as indicated by the design, and then goes 
out of sight and sinks into the body of the carpet, showing indistinctly 
the pattern on the back side. These are the main characteristics which 
distinguish Brussels carpets from tapestries, in that each color is composed 
of a thread of itself, dyed in the yarn, which runs the full length of the 
web, the colors, not being used to produce the pattern on the surface sink- 
ing into the body, causing the carpet to be heavier and firmer and showing 
indistinctly the pattern on the back. 

Tapestry Carpets or Tapestry Brussels, are manufactured by a 
very ingenious process which was invented and patented in Scotland in 
1832. It is composed of one thickness of worsted yarn printed before 
weaving with the colors which will compose its design when woven. This 
is woven into a stiff inelastic back composed entirely of jute or hemp. The 
method of weaving tapestry is a combination of weaving and printing, a 
pile or surface imitating and very similar to Brussels being produced, in 
which any desired number of colors is available, while only a single thread 
is used in making the pile, instead of the five or six which run through 
Brussels texture. In tapestry weaving the ordinary process of printing is 
reversed. Instead of the fabric being first woven and then printed, the 
thread is stamped and afterwards woven up as the warp, forming the pile 
of the carpet. One thread, or two treated as one, some times miles in 
length, is colored by steps of half an inch or so, faster than the Swiftest 
runner could make half the distance. When the thread has a been partill- 



62 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAR 

colored in this manner it forms the elements, as it were, of the intended 
pattern of the fabric. Singly in the long thread it exhibits no regular 
figure, but when woven up in the proper order the pattern comes into view 
little by little as the thread is looped around the wires. Unlike the weav- 
ing on the Brussels principle, in which the colors cannot exceed five or six, 
any desired number of colors and shades can be introduced in a Tapestry 
carpet. The manner of looping over the wires is exactly the same. The 
back side of Tapestry shows nothing but the plain linen backing into 
which the pile is woven ; though sometimes unscrupulous manufacturers 
stamp the back in imitation of a Brussels weave for purposes of deception. 
The color wears off and the pile sinks down, showing the foundation of the 
carpet much sooner in Tapestry than in Brussels, but as an offset to this 
the former are proportionately cheaper in price. Like Brussels, Moquetts 
and Wiltons they measure 26 inches in width. The quality is determined 
by the number of "cords" to the inch, termed in trade 10-wire, 9-wire, 
8-wire Taps, and so on, the less number of wires or cords to the inch the 
cheaper and less durable the carpet. 

Wilton Carpet is a variety of Brussels carpet in which the loops 
are opened into an elastic, velvet pile, and is so named from being origin- 
ally made at Wilton, England; but they differ from Brussels in this: When 
the wires upon which the loops are formed are drawn out, the worsted loops 
are cut, giving the fine upright pile or "plush:" To effect this the wires 
over which the yarn is looped, are not round and smooth as the Brussels 
wires, but are flat and furnished with a knife-edge at the top, which when 
withdrawn cuts the pile. Wiltons are made of extra fine, non-felting wools, 
which produce a surface extremely dense and lustrous. Among the re- 
spectable "middle-society" class of this country it is the abiding hope and 
never-faltering ambition of every good housewife to some day to carpet the 
front parlor with a genuine Wilton. No matter in what community she 
may reside, the possession of a Wilton affords her a prestige approached 
only and never excelled by solid walnut furniture or a Steinway Grand. 
The manufacture of Wilton is said to have been introduced in England 
through the exertions of Lord Pembroke. These carpets have the advan- 
tage of being executed in very beautiful designs, especially the Royal 
Wilton, in which the pile is raised much higher than in the common fabric 
of the same name. In the Wiltons made from high class Brussels there 
are nearly three thousand threads of worsted warp employed on the 27-inch 

web. 

Moquetts is the French term for "tufts of wool." The carpets known 
by this name are woven substantially after the manner of Brussels, the 
colors being dyed in the yarn; differing in this, however, that the pile is 
looped, first in a very coarse foundation to which is afterwards attached a 
another foundation for the purpose of giving the carpet weight and firm- 
ness. In Moquetts the loops instead of being left corded in rows are cut 
open into an elastic velvet pile, leaving a "plush" appearance. Moquett 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 63 

might be termed an American carpet, not being in much demand in other 
countries. In coloring they are soft and delicate. The pile of Moquett is 
much longer and deeper than that of a velvet carpet. 

Velvet Carpets are Tapestries cut after the Tapestry proper is 
made, and though handsome in effect, if the design be good, are neither so 
durable nor so rich as Wiltons, being like Tapestry made from one length, 
or frame, of parti-colored yarn, looped and then cut by passing through a 
machine in which a small knife passes under each row and severs the loops. 
The patterns have more lustre than in the Tapestries, caused by the colors 
being given off from the ends of the wool instead of the sides as in Tapes- 
try. 

Imperial Brussels is a variety of Brussels in which the pattern is 
raised above the ground and its loops cut so as to form a pile, while those 
of the ground remain uncut. 

Axminster Carpets owe their origin to James Templeton, of Scotland, 
who obtained a patent for his invention in 1840. They were first made at 
Axminster, England, hence the name. Axminster is at present but a 
small town of about three thousand persons, and no longer produces the 
floor covering which so much delighted our forefathers. These carpets 
are pile fabrics, woven into a strong linen or hempen backing and can be 
woven of a depth equal to any Oriental production. Their manufacture 
involves two distinct weaving operations: First, the preparation of 
"Chenille" strips which form Xh^. filling ; and second, the carpet weaving 
proper. The pattern or figure for the carpet is first prepared on paper, and 
accurately drawn in its proper colors. This is then cut into long, narrow 
strips and given to the Chenille weaver to guide him as to the colors he is 
to use, and he proceeds in the regular order that they were cut, with length 
after length till the whole pattern is woven up. This first web is cut into 
shreds or strips along its whole length, according to the number of 
"chenilles" it contains, and the loose edges faced together by a peculiarity 
in the weaving, so that a double pile projects upward from a finely woven 
center-rib or back. These chenille strips now form the filling for the 
second weaving and being woven into a strong linen foundation in the 
same order that the strips were cut from the original paper pattern, the 
colors consequently all come together properly, and the parts of the whole 
design come out gradually as the second weaving proceeds. Axminster 
carpets are classed with the very finest, surpassing in the depth of pile 
and beauty of coloring some of the present Oriental productions. These 
carpets are frequently three inches thick, and for durability cannot be 
excelled. It is seldom they find their way into any but wealthy families, 
as the best grades cannot be secured for less than $9 per yard, although 
imitations are made as low as $1.25 per yard. 

Aubusson Carpet is a variety made at Aubusson, France, generally in 
one piece to suit the size of the room. They are the finest and most costly 
loom carpets brought to the United States, being made in the hand or 



64 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAR 

needle-work style of the East Indian carpets, and are highly esteemed for 
the elegance of its design and coloring. They are generally ornamented 
with designs after the antique arabesque, but these luxurious articles are 
necessary confined to the opulent, as the great majority of the middle 
class in France scarcely know the use of carpets, which are so general 
with us, tile floors being the most common among them. As previously 
stated, the manufacture of carpets was introduced into France from Persia 
by Henry IV. and the magnificent royal factory still exists at Aubusson, in 
the South of France. 

Chenille Carpet is a variety in which the weft is of chenille instead of 
yarn. The pattern is dyed in the chenille itself, nothing showing on the 
surface of the carpet but the ends of the chenille fringe. 

Felt Carpet is one in which the fibers are matted or felted together 
without spinning or weaving, consisting of strips of felt set on edge and 
tightly laced through the center. They are the same on both sides, and are 
distinguished for their great durability and softness. 

Knitted Carpets are made in Germany, and are knit of strips of tex- 
tile goods, such as woven rag carpet is made of. The knitting is done with 
wooden needles, and for convenience in this respect is made only about 
twelve inches wide, the widths being joined together by sewing in the usual 
manner. The knitted carpet is more durable than the woven rag carpet. 
Knitted carpet schools have long been established in many towns in Ger- 
many, and it is stated that itinerant carpet makers travel from place to 
place teaching the art of carpet knitting for a small remuneration. 

Kidderminster Carpets in England are but another name for our two- 
ply or three-ply ingrains. In Scotland they are called Scotch carpets. 

Venetian Carpets are of the simplest kinds, the texture of which is 
plain; a striped woolen warp on a thick woof of thread, made of hemp, 
cotton or woolen, and the warp is so thick as to cover entirely the woof. It 
is not known that what is called Venetian carpeting was ever made at Ven- 
ice, Italy. 

Hemp Carpets, made entirely of hemp, were first imported from Rus- 
sia, but are now made in this country in considerable quantities. They are 
extremely cheap and durable, but are used chiefly in offices, passages, and 
places where a cheap carpet is required to deaden sound. An excellent 
floor covering for offices and business rooms is also made of cocoa fiber. 
It is woven open to let the dust pass through, and is extremely durable 
and cheap. 

Paper Carpet is a variety made of a hard and tenacious paper called 
hession, which is produced by subjecting the paper pulp to the action of 
chloride of zinc and then to strong pressure, by means of which the pro- 
duct is rendered hard and tough like leather. It is finished both plain and 
in imitation of ornamental woods. 

Fraternity Carpets are made in ingrain, especially for the use of 
lodges and secret societies. They are splendidly worked out and colored 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 65 

with designs and emblems peculiarly appropriate to the order for which 
they are intended. 

Dutch Carpet is a very strong and cheap wool ingrain carpet, usually 
woven in stripes and checks. 

Rag Carpets were first invented and woven during the early part of 
the present century by the economical settlers of New England. Until 
about 1874 no large factories for the weaving of rag carpets existed in the 
United States, the industry being carried on solely by families residing in 
rural communities. It is, however, fast becoming one of the lost arts, such 
as the making of flexible glass and the manufacture of Tyrian purple, being 
slowly but surely driven out by the superior appearance and low price of 
ingrains. While it is always possible to get the inferior factory-made arti- 
cle, yet that is not the sort that is associated with an old-fashioned room, 
with its high-post bedstead, whitewashed walls and diamond-paned win- 
dows. In those days the rags were cut and sewed by the log fire in the 
long winter evenings, and often the carpet was woven on the old wooden 
loom in the up-garret. For every three yards of carpet woven, required one 
and a quarter pounds of cotton carpet chain. If the weaving was hired the 
charge was 23 cents per yard, the weaver providing the warp, and an 
average days' work was about sixteen yards. List carpet is very similar to 
rag carpet, being made of the list or selvedges of woolen cloths obtained 
from tailor shops or clothing factories. It is made at all the regular carpet 
factories, a full yard wide and 130 yards to the roll. 

Persian or Oriental carpets are similar in their weaving to the 
Gobelin tapestry manufactured in France. This tapestry, as is well 
known, consists of tufts of wool (Fr. moqitetts) or silk sewed on the strings 
of the warp by means of small shuttle needles. The Persian carpet is 
formed by knotting into the warp tuft after tuft of woolen yarn, over each 
row of which a weft shot is passed, the particular pattern being produced 
by different colored threads, hand wrought upon the warp. In Persia there 
are entire tribes and families whose only occupation is carpet and rug 
weaving. These dispose of their productions to the native merchants, who 
ship them either to Smyrna or Constantinople, where they meet with 
English or American purchasers. Persia has always been particularly rich 
in the various products of the loom. Carpets, now so extensively made 
and used in all civilized countries, had their origin in Persia, which 
still produces perhaps the most beautiful specimens in the world. Their 
durability may be imagined from the fact that the floor of one of the 
largest palaces at Ispahan is still covered with a fine carpet made in 
1582. The Persian habit of sitting and sleeping on the ground probably 
lead to the manufacture of fabrics specially designed to meet the re- 
quirements of such a custom, and the carpets which thus had their or- 
igin in the common necessities of ordinary life afterwards found their way 
as luxuries to other countries. The finest Persian carpets are now made 
at Kurdustan The pattern does not represent a flower bouquet or other 



66 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAR 

objects thrown up in relief from a uniform ground like most of our de- 
signs, but looks more like a layer of flowers strewn on the ground. A 
real Kurdustan carpet is worth $20 a square yard. All carpets in Persia 
are made by hand with the aid of the simplest machinery, the loom 
being simply a frame upon which the warp is stretched. The wool 
consists of short threads of yarn woven and knotted into the warp with 
nothing else but the naked fingers. The long beautiful pile is formed by 
merely clipping the ends of the wool until an even surface is obtained. 
Not being "manufactured" in the proper sense of the word, the Persian 
is incapable of repeating over and over the same pattern. Each carpet 
is different in design from the one preceding it. This sort of weaving 
allows the maker to follow the bent of her lively imagination, always ac- 
companied by a sense of what is beautiful; she does not mind small 
irregularities in details, if the general design of the carpet has a pleasing 
and artistic effect. These carpets are now what they always were in 
manufacture, and probably, in the majority of instances, in design also 
— abounding with strangely fantastic forms, luxuriantly and harmoniously 
colored, and manufactured of materials second in durability only to the 
floor of which they form the cover. 

The Persian carpet is rarely large, and are mostly made by the 
women and children in the villages. The colors formerly used by the 
Persian weavers were imperishable. Carpets a hundred years old show 
no want of freshness of color, but rather soft tones like ancient oil paint- 
ings. The use of aniline color is strictly prohibited. A recent traveler 
in Asiatic Turkey gives a concise description of how Oriental carpets 
are woven in that country: "A loom primitively constructed of trunks of 
trees, as nature made them, is inclined against a wall; a trunk so ar- 
ranged that it can be turned round holds the threads of coarse wool, and 
a second supports the completed work. Balls of colored wool hang 
from a string, from which the women (the men do not work at the looms) 
take detached threads to form knots, each of which ties two threads of 
warp. After making a series of knots and consolidating them by means 
of a comb, they insert from right to left one or two threads of wool, and 
then pass on to the next series. The tufts which result from this work 
are combed and leveled with scissors. The patterns are worked from 
old models, which have decended in the family, or from designs received 
with orders from Smyrna, though of late years not a few orders have 
come direct from European and American agents." 

From a strictly artistic point of view, carpets should be darker in tone 
and more broken in hue than any portion of the room, both because they 
present the largest mass of color and because they serve as a back ground 
to the furniture placed upon them. As a general rule, lighter carpets may 
be used in rooms thinly furnished than to the contrary, as we should other- 
wise have too overpowering a mass of shade. The pattern should always be 
proportioned to the size of the room, as a small figured carpet in a large 



CAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 67 

room makes the floor space appear larger than a large figure would, and 
vice versa. 

"Sprouting" of carpets is a peculiar disease to which only Tapestry 
and Brussels are liable, consisting of the bobbing up of loops above the 
surface of the carpet. The trouble is especially liable to occur in first- 
class goods, in which the yarn is fine, soft and highly dressed. A rough 
table-castor or the jagged nail in a shoe has caused many a case of sprout- 
ing. There is but one remedy, and that is to clip off the loose ends with a 
pair of sharp scissors. By careful, close clipping the threads by degrees 
get flattened down and the trouble ceases. If this is not done at once these 
loose ends are liable to be caught again and again by the feet of the 
passers by, and the first injury made greater by the loops being dragged out 
further. The worst enemy of these two varieties of carpets is the common 
broom in the hands of a maid more muscular than intelligent. If possible, 
a new Brussels or Tapestry carpet should be exempted from sweeping for 
the first month; that is, until the loops get trodden down somewhat. If 
sweeping is regarded as absolutely necessary, the only proper thing to use 
is a good carpet sweeper run over the surface with the utmost possible care. 
In every case of complaint from a customer, the retail dealer should be es- 
pecially careful to place the matter in the hands of an experienced clerk, 
whose special business it should be not only to see to the remedy, but also 
to ascertain the cause of the trouble. Sprouting is not a fault or defect of 
the carpet, but a natural and unavoidable feature of the fabric, which the 
manufacturer can do nothing to prevent, neither can he have done any- 
thing to produce it; 

The following table shows at a glance how to cut economically and to 
the best advantage carpets with patterns ranging from 13 to 30 inches, so 
that they will match when made up. The table is thoroughly reliable, and 
will be found very valuable in saving time and waste, both to the salesman 
and carpet-sewer: 





ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


ft. 


in. 


13 inch pattern cuts at. . 


7 


7 


8 


8 


9 


9 


10 


10 


11 


11 


13 





14 


1 


15 


2 


14 " 


8 


2 


9 


4 


10 


6 


11 


8 


12 


10 


14 





15 


2 


16 


4 


15 " 


10 





11 


3 


12 


6 


13 


9 


15 





16 


3 


17 


6 


18 


9 


16 " 


9 


4 


10 


8 


12 





13 


4 


14 


8 


16 





17 


4 


18 


8 


17 " 


9 


11 


11 


4 


12 


9 


14 


2 


15 


7 


17 





18 


5 


19 


10 


18 •' 


9 





10 


6 


12 





13 


6 


15 





16 


6 


18 





19 


6 


19 " 


9 


6 


11 


1 


12 


8 


11 


3 


15 


10 


17 


5 


19 





20 


7 


20 " 


10 





11 


8 


13 


4 


15 





16 


8 


18 


4 


20 









21 " 


10 


6 


12 


3 


14 





15 


9 


17 


6 


19 


3 


21 









22 ' " 


11 





12 


10 


14 


8 


16 


6 


18 


4 


20 


2 


22 









23 " 


11 


6 


13 


5 


15 


4 


17 


3 


19 


2 


21 


1 


23 









24 " 


10 





12 





14 





16 





18 





20 





22 





24 





25 " 


10 


5 


12 


6 


14 


7 


16 


8 


18 


9 


20 


10 


22 


11 


25 





26 " 


10 


10 


13 





15 


2 


17 


4 


19 


6 


21 


8 


23 


10 


26 





27 " 


11 


3 


13 


6 


15 


9 


18 





20 


3 


22 


6 


24 


9 


27 





28 " 


11 


8 


14 





16 


4 


18 


8 


2L 





23 


4 


25 


8 


28 





29 " 


12 


1 


14 


6 


16 


11 


19 


4 


21 


9 


•24 


2 


26 


7 


29 





30 " 


10 





12 


6 


15 





17 


6 


20 





22 


6 


25 





27 


6 



In making calculations do not figure too close, as some carpets stretch 
or shrink a little, or a new piece of the same pattern may occasionally be 
made half an inch smaller or larger by the manufacturer. 



68 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAS 

Cashmere (kash'-mere). [Also written cachemere (and with altered 
form and sense cassimere and kersymere) ; so-called because first made in 
Cashmere, or Kashmir, the native name of a state and valley in the Hima- 
laya mountains north of Panjab, India; also the name of a fine-wooled goat 
or this same region]. An all-wool fabric used for ladies' dresses, originally 
made from the fine downy wool of the cashmere goat, but since 1824 has 
been manufactured both in England and America of . soft, prime native 
wool. It differs from merino in being twilled on one side only, and from 
henrietta in being finished with a more subdued luster. 

Cashmere Chevron. See Cote de Cheval. 

Cashmere Shawls. [Also called India shawls, and sometimes erro- 
neously termed camels' hair shawls.] These wonderfully wrought and 
ancient fabrics date back 4,000 years. The shawl cloth of Babylon, the 
silky textures of Ruth, the mantles of Thamar, and the long pieces of cloth 
worn by biblical characters were none other than shawls of eastern manu- 
facture. When these Asiatic veils or mantles took the form of the modern 
shawls is not precisely known, but it seems from certain French records 
that they were introduced into Europe about 1739 by the wives and daugh- 
ters of the French ambassadors to India. The first manufacture of shawls 
is believed to have originated in the valley of Cashmere, in the northwest 
of India. Though not so flourishing as it once was, the manufacture is still 
prosecuted in this province to a very considerable extent. The genuine 
cashmere shawls are the very best made, possessing unequalled fineness, 
delicacy and warmth, and characterized by great elaboration and minute 
detail of design, and by the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth and endur- 
ing qualities of the colors. These excellences are due to the raw material, 
which consists of the very fine, soft and flossy under wool of the cashmere 
goat, and to the unwearying patience and inherited skill of the Oriental 
weavers. A single goat does not yield more than three ounces, and the 
fleece of ten goats are requisite for the manufacture of a shawl a yard*and 
a half square. These goats which produce the finest down in the world are 
reared upon the cold, dry table-land of Thibet, from 14,000 to 16,000 feet 
above the level of the sea. The goat thrives sufficiently well in many other 
climates and countries, but in the sultry plains of Hindostan it has hardly 
more hair than a greyhound, and though in higher latitudes the hair is.more 
abundant, it is for the most part shaggy and coarse. It is only in the 
intensely cold and dry climate of Thibet that it yields the peculiarly soft 
downy wool that constitutes the material of the cashmere shawl. The 
wool is sorted with patient care by hand, and spun into a fine thread, a 
work of so much delicacy, owing to the shortness of the fibre, that a pound 
of undyed thread is valued at $12.15. The shawls are woven in rudely con- 
structed looms, a fine one often occupying the labor of three or four men 
a whole year in weaving; and it is to this slow and laborious process that 
their high prices are due. It is said that although $3,500 has been known 



CAS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 69 

to be paid for a single shawl, that but few of the finest ever leave India. 
The commonest qualities range in price as low as $50, and consumes from 
sixteen to twenty weeks in making. A first-rate shawl weighing about 
seven pounds may cost at the place of its production $1,500, made up thus: 
material $150, labor $750, duty $350, miscellaneous expenses and profits 
$250. There are several classes of these fabrics, principal among them 
being those woven all in one piece, either solid white or black or dyed of 
various colors; the class comprising embroidered shawls in which over a 
plain ground is worked by needle a minute and elaborate pattern; another 
class are those that are made in small strips or squares and sewn together 
with such precision and neatness that it is simply impossible from either side 
for the seam to be detected. The " cone " pattern, with its flowing curves 
and minute cornucopia of flowers, is characteristic of this latter class. 
Probably the finest specimen ever produced represents a map of the city 
of Shrinegar, the capital of Cashmere; the streets and houses, gardens and 
temples, with the people walking about among them, and the boats on the 
deep blue river being seen as plainly as in a finished photograph. Besides 
shawls, an immense variety of articles are made in Cashmere of shawl 
stuff. 

In 1822 pure Cashmere goats were introduced into France, and since 
have been unremittingly improved by cross-breeding until a fairly satis- 
factory result in the union of the most essential qualities of the wool — 
abundance, luster and softness — has been reached. By the aid of the 
draw loom and Jacquard loom French manufacturers have succeeded 
in weaving Cashmere shawls very similar to the Oriental in external 
aspect. To produce shawls altogether identical on both sides was a more 
difficult task. In both modes of manufacture, the piece is mounted by 
drawing the warp through the harness and ground treadles. The weaving 
of imitation shawls is executed as usual by as many shuttles as there are 
colors in the pattern, which are thrown across the warp in the order indi- 
cated by the design. The greater number of these weft yarns being intro- 
duced only at intervals into the web, many remain floating loose at the 
back of the piece, and are cut afterward without affecting in the least the 
quality of the texture. The deception would be very complete if the reverse 
of the shawl did not show the cut ends. It is said that the shawl merchants 
of India greatly admire the ingenuity of the French weavers in imitating 
Cashmere shawls, but condemn them on account of their harshness. The 
latter is largely due to the manner of washing the yarn. In Cashmere soft 
water is used in a solution of rice starch, which greatly adds to the peculiar 
softness and gloss of the yarn. Amritzer is now the principal entrepot of 
the shawl trade between India and Europe. Imitations of the real Cash- 
mere shawls made at Nimes and Lyons, France, are called "Broche," 
while those made at Paisley, Scotland, are known as "Paisley shawls." 

The common black shawls made of twilled Cashmere dress fabric, and 
fringed, usually worn by elderly women, bear no relation to the above 



70 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CAS 

described products of India. These latter are known as "square," "long," 
and "double." The "squares" range in size from 56x56, 60x60, up to 80x80; 
the "long" from 56x60, 60x64, up to 84 inches in length, while the 
"double" are twice the size of the "long" shawls. 

Cassimere. [From Cashmere.] A general term applied to a class of 
all wool cloths used for men's clothing, woven plain or twilled, coarse or 
fine of "woolen" yarn. The pattern of Cassimere is always woven in the 
loom, and the cloth is never napped. In order to make the pattern more 
distinct, Cassimeres on leaving the loom are slightly felted and then are 
subjected to the process of singeing, to remove from their surface all 
superfluous nap or the ends of wool which have been ruffed up in weaving 
and milling, producing a smooth, clean surface. It remains a mooted ques- 
tion which are the better for wear for men's clothing, worsteds or cassi- 
meres. The advocates of the latter contend that the looser and more pli- 
able a wool cloth is woven and the greater amount of elasticity pre- 
served, the better it will produce a resisting surface. [See Woolen and 
Worsted, Weaving.] 

Cassinette. [From Cashmere.] A cloth for men's wear made with a 
cotton warp and a fine woolen weft. Also called Kerseynette. 

Cassock. A loose form of cloak or outer coat, particularly a military 
one, worn by men. Also a long clerical coat, buttoned over the breast and 
reaching to the feet, and drawn in at the waist by a broad sash. In the 
Catholic Church its color varies with the dignity of the wearer: priests 
wear black; bishops, purple; cardinals, scarlet; and the pope, white. If 
lined with fur it is called a pelisse. 

Castor. The beaver, and by extension the fur or hide of a beaver. 
The fur of the Castor beaver is used in the manafacture of fur hats. Also, 
a heavy quality of broadcloth used for making overcoats is sometimes 
termed castor. [See Gloves.] 

Catgut. A sort of linen canvas with wide interstices. The intestines 
of sheep, dried and twisted, used for strings to violins and guitars. The 
popular supposition that these strings are made of the gut of cats, is 
erroneous. 

Celluloid. A combination of gun cotton and camphor. Its success- 
ful manufacture and introduction has only been accomplished in the past 
twelve years. Celluloid consists of vegetable fibre, treated with certain 
acids; this fibre is then united with camphor and other substances to make 
it elastic and capable of being molded in any form. Of recent years there 
has been much experimenting indulged in for the production of a whiter 
and clearer substance than celluloid. An Austrian has invented a material 
called celluline that, combines some of the properties of glass and cellu- 
loid. It is made by dissolving 4 to 8 parts of celluloid wool (gun cotton), 
in about 100 parts of alcohol, by weight, and adding 2 to 4 per cent of cas- 



CHA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 71 

tor oil and 10 per cent of resin or balsam. The mixture is then dried on a 
glass plate at a temperature of 120 degrees. The compound soon solidi- 
fies into a transparent sheet. The addition of magnesium chloride reduces 
its inflammability and zinc white gives it substantially the appearance of 
clear ivory. By increasing the relative proportions of castor oil and resin, 
the toughness and pliability of leather is imparted to the material. 

Clialli (shal'-i). A name originally given to a superior dress fabric 
of silk and wool, first manufactured at Norwich, England, in 1832. It was 
thin, fine and without gloss, but its chief characteristic was its absolute 
freedom from dressing. The name is now applied to an extremely light- 
weight dress fabric made of either cotton or wool, or a mixture, woven 
without twill, either plain or with printed figures. All-wool Challi does 
not differ essentially from the old fashioned muslin-delaine. Neither fabric 
wrinkles easily and both possess a cool, dainty look especially suited for 
the summer season. Most Challi patterns are copied from French silks, 
which in part accounts for their unusually tasteful designs and artistic 
effects. 

Chainbray* A variety of plain-woven ginghams, always of one color 
and without pattern. It is made of extra fine cotton yarns and stiffly sized 
with pure starch. The fabric gets its name from Cambray, France, where 
it was first woven of linen. 

Channeling Machine. A machine for cutting the channel in the soles 
of shoes and boots, into which the thread is sunk. 

Chasuble (chas'-u-ble). A sleeveless vestment or coat, devoid of but- 
tons or other fastening, and provided with an opening in the center through 
which to pass the head. The chasuble is the principal garment worn by a 
priest when celebrating the mass or holy communion. It is held to 
represent the seamless coat of Christ, or charity symbolized by it. The 
material is usually rich stuff, silk brocade or velvet. 

Check. In textile fabrics a pattern of squares of alternate colors. 
Properly, a check should have no divisions between the squares more than 
a thin boundary line; that is, it should resemble the ordinary chess-board. 
[See Plaid.] The word check is derived from a custom practiced by the 
courts of Europe of settling accounts and computing money by means of 
counters or tallies on a table covered with a square checkered cloth; the 
word having been originally derived from French echequier — a chess-board. 

Cheese-cloth. A thin, limp muslin, bleached or brown, used by dairy- 
men to cover their cheese. A variety of cheese-cloth called cotton bunting 
is woven smooth and of better texture, and is used by women as a cheap 
white dress goods. It is entirely free from sizing. 

Chemise (she-mez'). [From Arabic camis, shirt.] The innermost 
garment worn by women, anciently known as a " shift " or " smock." 

Chemisette. [Diminutive of chemise). An article used by ladies for 



72 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CHE 

covering the neck, made of some light fabric, as lace or cambric, usually 
worn under a waist cut low, in imitation of the exposed portion of a man's 
shirt bosom. 

Chenille (she-neel'). [French for " caterpillar."] A beautiful descrip- 
tion of cord used for embroidery and decorative purposes. The name 
denotes the appearance of the material, which somewhat resembles the 
hairy caterpillar. Chenille cord is usually made of silk, though sometimes 
of silk and wool, and for cheap fringes of wool alone. 

Chenille Cloth. A fabric made with a fringed silken thread used as a 
weft, in combination with wool or cotton; a fur-like surface is thus pro- 
duced, whence its name. 

Cheviot. A twill-woven, napped " woolen " cloth, originally made from 
the wool of Cheviot sheep. These sheep were formerly native to the 
Cheviot Hills, near the boundary between Scotland and England, but are 
now extensively reared in the United States. The genuine cheviot is a 
superior fabric for men's clothing, being strongly woven of carefully- 
selected wool, and finished with a closely curled nap. The value of 
cheviots depend more on their construction than their appearance, and few 
can discern from the latter the character of the former. Since about 1888, 
an immense demand has sprung up for this fabric in the ready-made cloth- 
ing trade, and while some genuine and wearable cheviot was made up, yet 
the very composition of the cloth admitted of a wide field for the lowering 
of the standard, without much risk of detection, with the result that the 
quality of late has sadly depreciated. The same reasons which account 
for the imitating of cheviots account also for the imitating of many other 
first-class fabrics: first, the greed of manufacturers; and second, the public's 
demand for cheap grades of a popular fabric. Consumers who are obliged 
to select according to their purse nevertheless expect and absolutely 
demand the same weaves and patterns that are displayed for the delecta- 
tion of their more favored brethern. This can only be supplied by the pro- 
duction of an inferior and ofttimes worthless fabric. Imitations of cheviot 
are made to look well, and appear a marvel of cheapness, but an examina- 
tion shows their weight to have been increased by the addition of flocking 
or shoddy. Apparently they seem strong, but a sudden pressure on any 
part will cause a rent while the face will be off in a week's wear and the 
poverty of the goods plainly manifested. Such a cloth possesses no 
intrinsic value, and pandering to cheapness only results in damaging the 
reputation of genuine cheviot. [See Woolen.] 

Cheviot Shirting. A term which formerly signified a cotton fabric 
free from starch or dressing, but of late years has come to include all 
medium grades of single-thread, soft-finished shirt cloth. 

Chiffon (shif'-on. French pron. she-f on'). A variety of thin trans- 
parent silk gauze woven so fine and sheer that ordinary print may be easily 
read through it. It is stated that one pound of the warp of Chiffon will ex- 



CHI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 73 

tent eight miles. It is both black and white, printed and plain; 45 and 
20 inches in width. It is used for neck and sleeve trimming and for draping 
over silk foundations, ladies handkerchiefs, etc. 

Chijiini (chi-je'-ma). A variety of Japanese drapery siik, dyed in fast 
colors; in width thirty inches. 

China Silk. A term applied to the plain silks woven in China, Japan 
and India on the primitive hand looms of those countries. The warp and 
weft are identical in size and color, and are woven in evenly, producing a 
beautiful natural luster. Real China silk is easily recognized on account 
of the imperfections which always mark hand-spinning and hand-weaving; 
some of the threads being heavier than others, a somewhat irregular o r 
" faulty " surface is produced. The bulk of these fabrics come from China 
and Japan, India silk being almost a myth, so little of it is made and so lit- 
tle sold. Choice in the market lies practically between the products of 
China and Japan, about nine-tenths being from China. The difference 
between these two is not seen by the casual observer. The weave of Japan 
is smoother, softer in quality and much more beautiful. They wear about 
equally well and there is no perceptible difference in the price, the range 
in both being from 50 cents to $3, the latter price being for an extraordinary- 
quality, a yard wide. The usual width is twenty-six inches. 

Many persons confound the China and India silks. The China silks 
are distinguished by their somewhat coarse, irregular threads and by their 
softness. The India silks have more body and a more even surface, and 
are better adapted for long outside garments, traveling dresses and petti- 
coats, as they shed the dust; the Chinas are eminently fitted for tea gowns 
and under-clothing which is to be worn next to the skin, as it laundries 
well. Almost every city and country town in China is largely devoted to 
the cultivation of the silk worm, which is carried on usually by young girls. 
Frequently along some of the narrowest streets of the over-populated cities 
may be heard the clatter of the loom and the rattle of the shuttle in a little 
bit of a half-lighted establishment, the door of which is scarcely five feet 
from that of the opposite shop. A loom stands on each side of the 
entrance, and the weavers at work are well-nigh in the street, if the paths 
between the houses may be termed such. This is a characteristic silk fac- 
tory of that interesting country. Two men working hard all day weave 
only about three or four yards of " China silk," and get for their day's work 
about twenty cents. The name " China silk " has also been adopted in the 
United States recently for a class of machine-woven silks made in imita- 
tion of the more serviceable hand-loom product. These imitations are 
three inches narrower in width and lack the soft quality of the eastern 
fabrics, and are also free from the imperfection of uneven threads. Both the 
hand-wrought and power-wove varieties are printed in much the same 
fashion as calico. When the figure is white upon a dark ground the silk is 
bleached, then run between rollers that print the ground, leaving the figure 



11 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CHI 

blank. Colored figures on white or light grounds simply reverse the pro- 
cess. Complex patterns, employing many colors, have a separate roller 
and printing for each tint. 

Chinchilla. The Indian name for a squirrel-like animal found in the 
mountains of South America. The ancient Peruivans were accustomed to 
employ the wool of these animals in the manufacture of fine fabrics. The 
fur is beautifully fine and of a pearly-gray color, rolled into little tufts, 
much used for muffs and tippets, lining for cloaks, etc. Chinchilla over- 
coating is a thick, heavy, double-woven fabric, with a napped surface 
rolled into little tufts in imitation of Chinchilla fur; manufactured in all 
colors and qualities, used for men's overcoats and ladies' cloaks. Chin- 
chilla is made both all wool and "union," usually with a slight nap raised 
on the wrong side for the procurement of warmth. The fabric differs from 
Frieze in not being so heavy nor so shaggy, and from Montenac and Fur- 
Beaver in having the nap rolled or curled into small tufts. [See Weaving, 
Teasling.] 

Chine (sheen; French pron. she-na'). [From the Fr. chiner, color, 
dye.] A term applied to the fabrics in which the warp is dyed in different 
colors at short distances, so that a mottled effect is produced; or in which 
a double thread, formed of two smaller threads of different colors twisted 
together, is used to produce a similar mottled or speckled appearance. In 
plain Chine silks the threads are colored in a similar manner, so that when 
woven up into the fabric the peculiar reflections of light, giving the 
appearance of shadows, is produced. Figured Chine silks have a plain 
ground, but the flowers and bouquets forming the pattern have an indistinct 
and cloudy appearance, produced by the breaking of minute particles of 
color into one another. 

Chintz (Hindoo chhint, spotted). Cotton cloth printed with flowers 
or other patterns of bright colors, and finished with a glaze. The only dif- 
ference between Chintz and Cretonne consists in the glazing of the former, 
which is effected by calendering. Chintz is also known under the name of 
furnitnre print, from its extensive use in covering furniture. About 1850 
glazed chintz was greatly used for furniture, and some of the patterns 
which have survived are quite surprisingly bad. For this reason, and the 
fact that chair covers were gone out of fashion, the majority of the world 
got tired of Chintzes, when some enterprising manufacturer saw the beauty 
which might lie in a fabric called Cretonne — which is simply a Chintz with- 
out a glaze. It is a question whether Chintz is ever either suitable or 
salable in a town. Its extreme daintiness' seems as out of place in the grime 
and grind of a city as the innocent chat of a country cousin seems almost 
like a reproach to the short-haired advocate of "women's rights." But the 
soft tints and darker shades of Cretonne are always harmonious, and it is 
asserted by artists there is no fabric with the exception of Brocade which 



CHI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 75 

looks so well for upholstery purposes. Chintzes are all block-printed, the 
principal dyes being madder, weld and indigo. 

The earliest mention of cotton-printing occurs in Pliny, in the first 
century, A. D., who records his surprise at seeing the Egyptians exercise 
this wonderful method of dyeing, by which the white cloth was stained in 
various places, not with dye stuffs, but with substances which had the prop- 
erty of absorbing colors. Herodotus mentions a Scythian tribe who stained 
their garments with the figures of animals by means of the leaves of a tree 
bruised with water, " which would not wash out, but lasted as long as the 
cloth." The Egyptians probably learned the art from India, for there was 
communication between the two countries before the first century, the time 
of Pliny. The India Chintzes were in much request in Europe before the art of 
making them had been introduced and simplified there; most of them were 
made by very tedious processes, a great part of the pattern being painted by 
hand. The parts intended to be white were covered with wax before the 
material was thrown into the dye-vat, and the process of afterwards re- 
moving the wax occupied considerable time and no small amount of pa- 
tience. Small quantities of these goods were at intervals shipped to Eng- 
land and Holland as early as the 12th century, and there seems to be little 
doubt that an attempt was made in Europe in the direction of printing pat- 
terns on cotton as early as 1634. The introduction of cotton printing into 
Europe is mainly due to the Dutch, the Dutch East India Company having 
taken the India Chintzes to Holland before they were heard of in England. 
Flemish emigrants imported the art into England about 1676, and later 
other works sprang up to supply the London shops with Chintzes, their im- 
port from India having been prohibited by Parliament in 1700. This in- 
fringement of the rights of consumers having been received with equa- 
nimity. Parliament next proceeded to pass a law prohibiting the wearing 
of all printed cottons — -a law which actually endured in force for 16 years 
and nipped the rising industry in the bud. In 1736 this unjust law was re- 
pealed, but the cotton-printer was handicapped by having to pay a duty of 
6 pence on every square yard of Chintz he turned out. Later on this duty 
was decreased to 3 pence, but it was not until 1831 that it was repealed alto- 
gether. The passage of these obnoxious laws was chiefly due to the extreme 
jealously of the silk and woolen weavers — a feeling which reached its cli- 
max in the London riots when the silk weavers paraded the city and tore 
the calico gowns off every woman they met. Notwithstanding such un- 
favorable beginning, the cotton-printing industry gradually triumphed, 
until to-day calico goods are part of the national need and an immense 
addition to the national wealth. [See Calico, BlockPrinting, Cotton, 
Cretonne.] 

Chudder. [From Hindoo chaddar, mantle, shawl]. The name given 
in Europe to the plain shawls of cashmere of solid color, without pattern 
except a herringbone twill, or if embroidered, having the embroidery the 
same color as the ground. 



76 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CLA 

Cladding-. [From clad, to clothe]. A word sometimes used for clothes 
and clothing. 

Claitll. A Scotch word for cloth. 

Clamp-dyeing. See Flags. 

Clerk. [From Latin clericus, clergyman, priest, whence our words 
clerical, clergy, ecclesiastic, clerk, etc]. In its original sense a learned man; 
a man of letters; a scholar; formerly a man who could read, an attainment 
confined chiefly to ecclesiastics. At present by extension, one who is em- 
ployed in an office, public or private, or in a store or warehouse either to 
keep accounts or act in the capacity of salesman. 

Clan Tartans. [It. tartanianna, linsey-woolsey, or cloth of different 
materials and colors.] A term descriptive of the parti-colored plaids long 
worn by the different clans of Scotland. They were of various combina- 
tions of colors. The exact date of the introduction of clan tartans into this 
country which at different times have assumed so many wonderful and 
picturesque varieties, is assigned to 1822. The fashion of wearing these 
gaily colored plaids has been revived from time to time during recent 
years, and have been variously styled Scotch Plaids, Clan Tartans, Tartan 
Plaids, etc. The numerous clans into which the Highland population was 
divided had each a special tartan plaid by which it was distinguished. 
Many new and imaginary " sets'' have been invented by manufacturers in 
the United States, with the result of introducing confusion in the heraldry 
of tartans, and of throwing doubt on the reality of the distinctive " sets " 
which in the olden time were undoubtedly recognized as badges of particu- 
lar clans. [See Plaids.J 

Clay Worsted. A variety of flat-twilled worsted woven with a twill 
similar to that of serge, the diagonal lines lying flat on the surface and 
barely perceptible. On account of the warp and weft being slackly twisted 
the cloth does not take a gloss as in the case of the ordinary hard-twisted 
worsteds. The name is derived from an English manufacturer, and it is 
from England that the best qualities are obtained. 

Cloaks. [Originally spelled clokke and until recently cloke. The 
word is derived from clock, which piece of mechanism, when first made, 
was of the shape of a bell, and sounded the hours with a clapper. The 
cloak when first used for a garment was bell-shaped and without sleeves, 
hence the name.] Properly a loose outer garment without sleeves, worn by 
either sex as a protection against the we'ather; at present, however, the 
term is used for any sort of sleeved wrap, long or short, worn by women. 
Though a garment of great antiquity, cloaks have in the course of many 
centuries varied but little, save in being at times short or long, ornamental 
or useful. They have frequently been common to both sexes, and by 
English laws of the time of Edward IV (1441 — 1483) were legally regulated 
as to the length they should be cut and who should wear them. Then no 
person under the degree of a lord was allowed to wear a cloak which was 



CLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 77 

not of sufficient length "as being upright to cover his private members and 
buttocks upon pain of being fined fourty shillings." The fashion of wear- 
ing short cloaks has frequently recurred, and cloaks of light and costly 
materials have been worn by men, particularly in the dissolute courts of 
the early Stuarts. It was one of these latter garments which Sir Walter 
Raleigh gallantly threw upon the muddy ground that Queen Elizabeth 
might pass with dry shoes, which act of gallantry ingratiated him into the 
Queen's good will and brought him life-long favors. Under the name of 
Spanish cloak this garment was worn from about 1800 to 1840 in Great 
Britain and America, the shape being a half-circle; it had a broad collar, 
often velvet or fur, which was continued down the edges of the cloak on 
both sides. The same garment is still worn as the most common winter 
dress in Italy. 

At the present day, when well-fitting, stylish and comfortable cloaks 
may be bought for very little money, the wonder is that the styles are not 
more varied. The styles in the United States are more varied than those of 
the outer garments for men, but hundreds of cloaks of the same pattern 
may be seen in the streets of a city any day. Cloaks are garments on 
which women cannot show much originality in making them at home, as 
they can on dresses, and the styles are, therefore, fixed by the designers 
employed by manufacturers. In many instances the styles depend on the 
material to be used, as it would be useless to design a style with many 
puffs and folds for a thick and heavy material. Besides if the style be 
good the cloak is acceptable to many women whether it be suited or un- 
suited to their figures. In making cloaks, where the demand may be some- 
times for 500 of a certain style, each piece of cloth is thoroughly examined by 
experts in regard to measure, texture, and color, and then it is sponged by 
machinery made especially for that purpose. All "smooth" cloths and 
those with finished faces are sponged by copper rollers, and the machinery 
is so arranged that from the time the cloth starts until it is folded dry, it is 
not touched by the operator. The cloth is then ready for the cutters, with 
all its imperfections marked. Each cutter has a separate check upon which 
have been entered the particulars about the cloth, style, and proper pat- 
terns. If the quantity be large enough for the cutting machine, it is 
marked and laid in folds, but small pieces are cut by hand with shears. 
After the cloth has been cut according to the provided patterns, the bun- 
dles are carefully compared with the orders, and then a ticket is made for 
each garment, on which is a place for each worker to put his or her num- 
ber, so that a complete record is kept of every hand thac works on the 
garment. The garments then go to the seamers, who are employed the 
year round to seam them on machines specially adjusted for that par- 
ticular work, being provided with a fixed gauge that insures a perfectly 
uniform seam. Expert seamers can work at machines that make 3000 
stitches a minute. For the detection of any possible mistakes and imper- 
fections in the fit, the garments are tried on models before being sent to 



78 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CLO 

the trimmers. The collars, cuffs, facings, etc., of each garment are cut ac- 
cording to the style designed, and, with the "body" sent to a workman 
who particularly excels in that portion of the labor. After leaving the 
finisher the garment is inspected again by the foreman, and if it be not 
satisfactory, it goes back to the workman for alterations. After the mak- 
ing of buttonholes and the sewing on of buttons and ornaments, the gar- 
ments go to the presser, and from here to the final examiners and model, 
who are responsible for the fit and workmanship, and who see that the ma- 
terials and trimmings are right, and that any changes that may have been 
ordered to suit certain customers have been properly made. Then they 
are ready for packing and shipping. 

Records of the shape, cloth, trimmings and buttons, or any other parts 
of the garment, are kept in duplicate, so that a copy of any garment can 
be made at any time. Sometimes cloaks that are in fashion in the East 
for a year do not reach the far West until a year or more afterward, 
when some particular style may be favored more than another, and the 
orders for it be larger than those for any other. By turning to the records, 
exact duplicates of any style can be made at any time, provided that the 
material be in the market. One of the most important if not the most re- 
sponsible positions in a cloak factory is that of the model, or "figure," and 
upon securing good ones depends the prosperity of the establishment. The 
fact that women for the position of models are paid from $12 to $18 per 
week for comparatively easy work is an indication that they cannot be had 
in great numbers. It requires no experience to be a model, but it does re- 
quire natural grace and fine physical proportions — in fact, "the female form 
divine." Good looks do not count, though a show-room figure must have 
attractions and dress much better than the fitting-model in the work-shop. 
Manufacturers as a rule require a woman of about 5 feet, %% inches in 
height. She seldom goes under that, but sometimes half an inch more is 
desirable. The professional figure has a natural grace about her that can- 
not be acquired by artificial means. Any young woman who has the heigth 
mentioned above, a bust measurement of 36 inches, waist 24 inches, length 
of back from 16j^ to 17 inches, arms 24 inches, neck 12)4 inches, hips 42 
inches, and 13*4 inches across the shoulders, is a perfect figure and can find 
steady employment in any cloak house at any time she chooses. The show- 
room models generally have a contract for all the year around and are 
paid in full for the same, but they seldom have anything to do except in 
January and Febuary when the buyers flock to market for the purchase of 
spring goods, and in July and August when they lay in a supply of fall and 
winter wraps. The workroorri models are always kept busy. They are 
the hardest worked of any in the establishment, for upon her is tried 
twice at least every garment turned out. The sample, or trying-on model 
must be the most perfect. She, too, is compelled to toil the year round. 
Large houses employ from 12 to 15 models. 

In Europe the method of cloak manufacture is not carried on as in 



CLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 79 

this country. In both England and Germany, and in Berlin especially, the 
cloakmakers, in a way, get their styles from Paris. They willingly pay a 
high price for the brains and ideas of the French fashion-makers. The 
majority of these come from Worth, the fountain-head of Fashion. When 
the season opens the manufacturers have a large assortment of patterns 
ready for all countries and tastes. The buyers come, select their styles, 
place their orders, with changes here and there, or with other combinations 
and sorts of materials. When the manufacturer has booked his orders, he 
buys his stock. Then he gets his cloakmakers, who take the goods, trim- 
mings and belongings to their shops, where they have to do all the spong- 
ing, cutting, modeling, sewing, pressing and finishing and deliver the gar- 
ments ready for shipment. If there are any defects in the work the cloak- 
maker has to make them good. The manufacturer has no further respon- 
sibility, except to pay the men the stipulated price, and no other function 
than the furnishing of the goods and patterns in the manufacturing opera- 
tions. 

Clock. [From Ang.-Sax. clokke, a time-piece, which, in its original 
form, was bell-shaped]. A term applied first in 1543 to a bell-shaped orna- 
ment or flower upon the sides of hoods and hose. At present, any figured 
ornament on the side of the ankle and leg of a stocking, either woven in 
the fabric or embroidered upon it. 

Cloth, [Formerly cloath, origin uncertain.] A fabric or texture of 
wool or hair, or of cotton, flax, hemp, ramie, silk, or other fiber formed by 
weaving or intermixture of threads, and used for garments or other cover- 
ing. Specifically, in trade, a fabric of wool, in contradistinction to one 
made of other materials. 

Clothes. Garments for the human body. Dress; vestments; raiment; 
vesture; clothing; personal attire. According to statisticians, there are 
about five hundred millions of the human race who are well clothed— that 
is, who wear garments of some kind. Seven hundred millions cover only 
certain parts of the body, and two hundred and fifty millions go entirely 
naked. History teaches that man originated in tropical regions, hence it 
is reasonable to suppose, on account of the mildness of the climate, that in 
the first stages of his existence the garments adopted by man consisted of 
only such as were required for decency. As the population of the earth 
grew and gradually extended northward to less favorable regions, and was 
divided into nations and classes of society, additional clothing became 
necessary, both for comfort and as a distinguishing badge of nation or of 
class. Philosophers assert that clothes are our friends or our foes all the 
days of our lives. They control our very health to say nothing of our 
worldly credit, and are never without some influence, pleasurable or the 
reverse, upon our associates. [See Dress, Costume, Colors, Fashion.] 

Clothier. A retail dealer in ready-made clothes for men; a clothing 
merchant. Merchants sold cloth ages ago, but ready-made-clothing mer- 



Nails. 


Inches. 


16 


36 


4 [= 


9 


1 


2^ 



80 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CLO 

chants were unknown in the world sixty-five years ago. Among twelve 
hundred millions of the earths' people clothing stores are still unknown and 
unheard-of institutions. One hundred years ago in all civilized countries 
tailors went from house to house and made up garments from home-made 
cloth. About sixty years ago tailors began keeping shops, where people 
took their cloth and had their garments made. Gradually the tailors 
began to keep cloths for sale, and were called merchant tailors, and a 
few years later clothing stores sprang up. 

Cloth Measure, A standard system formerly employed for measur- 
ing the length and surface of cloth sold by the yard, but now practically 
out of use, the yard being divided into halves, quarters and sixteenths. 
The table is: 

Yard. Quarters. 

1 = 4 = 

1 = 

Cloth of Gold. A splendid fabric of very ancient origin, first men- 
tioned in Deuteronomy XXXIX, 3: " And they did beat the gold into thin 
plates, and cut it into wires to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in 
the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work." Both round wires 
and flat strips of gold were early employed in weaving cloth of gold. In 
the latter case, the strips were wound round silken thread. Most frequently 
the gold threads were woven with a web of silk, but instances of stuffs 
wholly composed of gold are common. Some old historical writers, almost 
contemporary with the time of the great jenghiz Kahn (1162-1227), the 
Mongolian emperor, state the latter had in his possession at the time of his 
death, "apiece of cloth beautiful beyond description, which he claimed 
was of pure gold, containing 130 shades of color." A shred of cloth of 
gold is still preserved at Leyden, Germany/ which was discovered in one of 
the ancient tombs at Tarquinii, in Etruria (7th century, B. C.) In this, 
tissue gold forms a compact covering over bright yellow silk. The use 
of cloth of gold in England was most profuse from the reign of Edward 
I to that of Henry VIII (1239 to 1497). The House of Commons, in the 
reign of Richard II (1350), presented a petition, praying that no knight or 
lady under forty pounds land by the year " do wear any precious furs, cloth 
of gold, ribbon of gold or silk, on pain that they lose all that they have." 
In the various wardrobe accounts of the sovereigns of both England and 
France, from this time forward, frequent entries are found of cloth of gold, 
etc. At a very early date in mediaeval ages, fraudulent imitations of gold 
threads were made from copper-gilt wire and from gold leaf hammered 
upon vellum and afterward cut into strips. The practice of covering fabrics 
with leaf -gold gilding had been sufficiently frequent as to call for the inter- 
ference of Parliament. In England, in 1619, " the better to prevent the un- 
necessary and excessive vent of gold and silver foilate (gold-leaf) within 



CLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 81 

this realm, none such shall henceforth be wrought or used on cloths, etc.," 
armor and banners excepted. However, but little attention was paid to this 
edict. Two years later, a Scotch law was passed " whereby no persons were 
to wear cloth of gold or silver, nor gold and silver lace on their clothes, nor 
velvets, satins, or other silk stuffs," except certain persons of rank. Heavy 
silk, inwrought with gold and silver, the richest and costliest which textile 
industry in general can furnish has always been used for ceremonial gar- 
ments by the Chinese and Japanese, and for the furnishing for the richer 
theatres and temples. The use of gold paper in Japanese brocade, or cloth 
of gold, has recently awakened great interest with silk manufacturers in 
various countries. The paper is cut into narrow strips and is then either 
spun around silk thread or is itself twisted into a thread and woven in. The 
fabric in this way looks just as if it were inwrought with genuine gold, but 
differs in that it is cheaper and more flexible than the actual gold. From 
historical records it will be seen that cloth of gold has been, in nearly all 
ages, worn almost exclusively by the nobilitv and the church until within 
the present century, when in the cycles of fashion succeeding, it has been 
appropriated for various articles of costume worn by ladies in general. 
[See Brocade.] 

Coal tar colors. A name given to a numerous class of colors de- 
rived from coal tar by various complex chemical methods. From ordi- 
nary soft coal is obtained the means of producing over 400 shades of colors, 
nearly all of which are useful in dyeing fabrics. They are more often and 
properly called aniline colors, as aniline was the first of them discovered. 
[See Aniline.] 

Coat. A principal outer garment; any covering for the body. Speci- 
fically an outer garment worn by men, covering the upper part of the body. 
In the early middle ages it was identical with what is now called a tunic, 
or sometimes with the cassock and corset (which see). Coats of modern 
form, fitted to the body and having loose skirts, first appeared in the regin 
of Charles II (1630-1685). Since the beginning of the 18th century the 
coat has been of three general fashions; a broad skirted coat, now called 
the Prince Albert, so named in honor of Queen Victoria's illustrious consort; 
the cutaway coat; and the sack coat which has no skirt. About 1860 the 
long-used swallow tail coat was discarded, and the Prince Albert took its 
place. This was too staid and uncomfortable a dress coat for young men, 
and very soon tailors improved upon it. They made it shorter, whittled 
the sides away to a tapering skirt and cut it to fit, and made it of fancy 
colored cloths as well as of the old broadcloth. This was the the modern 
cutaway coat, and it has taken such a hold with the public that it is now 
the most popular article of dress in men's clothing. 

Coburg 1 . A thin dress fabric woven of worsted and cotton, twilled on 
one side, and used as a substitute for merino and paramatta cloth. It was 
first introduced in England in 1838, shortly after Victoria's marriage with 



82 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS, COB 

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg ; most probably aiming at popularity through 
that event. In England the term coburg is applied to all cotton-warp, 
twilled worsted dress fabrics either of double or single width. 
Cobweb lawn. Fine white linen or cotton lawn. [See Lawn.] 
Cochineal (kotch ' -i-neal). A dyestuff consisting of the dried bodies 
of a species of insects. It colors a brilliant crimson, which can be changed 
by acids to an orange-red, and by alkalis to violet; a beautiful scarlet dye 
is also prepared from it. The cochineal insect is extensively cultivated in 
the tropical countries of America, in Algeria, Java and the Canary Islands, 
especially the island of Teneriffe, from whence about five million pounds 
are exported annually. The female only are valuable for their color, and 
are collected twice a year. They are killed by baking them in rude ovens 
or immersing them in boiling water. The cochineal is a fat, dark, spherical 
little body, looking like a black currant, and with neither head, legs, nor 
tail to the casual observer. In fact, he is so inanimate that one may crush 
him between finger and thumb without any qualm of conscience. He is 
nothing but a black currant sure enough and the ancient Greeks held the 
idea that they were a sort of berry, though the bright carmine from his body 
which serves him for blood and the dyer for dye, is a better color'than the 
juice of the currant. A cochineal plantation has a singular aspect. The • 
larvae, like that of the silk-worm, being very delicate have to be tied upon 
cactus plants, which is to be their nursery and their nourishment at the same 
time. Thus may be seen hundreds of the shoots of the cactus all bandaged 
with white linen, as if they had the toothache. In this way the insects are 
kept warm and dry during the winter, and induced to adhere to the plant 
itself. When they are full grown, they are ruthlessly swept away from their 
prickly quarters, baked or boiled to death and dried in the sun. The 
shriveled anatomies are then packed in bags, and sold for about $25 per 
hundredweight. 

Cocked Hat. A hat turned up evenly on three sides, such as naval 
and military officers wear on full-dress occasions. Such hats were in 
general use in the last century by the American patriots, and also by the 
Pilgrims. 

Cockle. [Derived from cockle-shell, which is a variety having wrinkles 
or crimps over its surface.] A term in trade signifying to pucker or con- 
tract into wrinkles; to rise into frequent uneven ridges or puckers. Often 
used in reference to worsted or mohair fabrics when wet. 

Cocoa Fibre. Cocoa matting and cocoa carpeting are made of what 
is technically called "coir," which is the thick, fibrous husk surrounding 
the cocoa-nut when first plucked from the tree. This husk is spun into a 
small cord and the matting or carpet is woven thick and heavy and rather 
open in texture to permit the dust and dirt to sift through it; especially 
used where much rough wear is expected. These husks, which are largely 
imported from India and Ceylon, were formerly considered useless, but are 



COI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 83 

now commercially more valuable than the nuts which they cover. Coir is 
particularly esteemed for ship ropes on account of its peculiar property 
of resisting the action of salt water, whereas fresh water makes it rotten. 

Coiffure (koif'-ur; French pron. kwo' -fur). A head-dress; the manner 
of arranging or dressing the hair. 

Collar. [From Latin collum, the neck.] Originally a peculiar badge 
worn around the neck by Knights of different orders. It consisted of a 
gold chain, enameled, etc., to which was attached the badge of the order 
to which the Knight belonged. It was worn at court chiefly on state oc- 
casions.which were called collar days. These bands were first worn during the 
16th and 17th Centuries, and have varied from the plain band, which was 
nothing more than the simplest of collars, to elaborately trimmed falling 
bands, which ornamented with lace and needlework, fell far over the 
shoulders requiring a receptacle to themselves for storing away; hence was 
derived our present "band-box." 

Collars and Cuffs. Articles of attire for both men and women, made 
usually of linen, and starched. The quality is denoted by the "ply," 
which ranges from 2-ply to 5-ply. Ladies' cuffs range in size from 7 to 9; 
boys' cuffs from 8 to 9; men's from 9 to 12. Men's collars range in size 
from 14 to 20; boys' from 12 to 14>^; ladies' from 12 to 16. One "size" of 
both cuffs and collars is one half inch in their length. 

Colors. In its relation to textiles, color is that quality or appearance 
of a fabric which is perceived by the eye alone independently of its form. 
Hue is the distinctive quality of a color; the respect in which colors may 
differ though possessing the same luminosity and chroma. Thus scarlet and 
crimson differ in hue, but buff and yellow chiefly in chroma. The word 
hue is always applied to the modifications which it receives from the addi- 
tion of a smaller quantity of another color. Chroma is the degree of de- 
parture of a color from that of white or gray. Tone means, the various 
modifications which a color is capable of receiving from white (which 
lowers its tone) or black (which heightens it). In fewer words, it is the mod- 
ification which any color is capable of receiving from the addition of black 
or white. Tints are the colors considered as more or less bright by being 
modified by the addition of white. Shade is any degree or variation of a 
color, as lighter or darker. There are but three primary colors generally 
recognized: blue, red and yellow. These are called primary because they 
cannot be produced by compounding any other colors. The secondary 
colors are green, purple and orange. These are called secondary because 
blue and yellow make green; red and blue make purple, and red and yellow, 
orange. From these are derived the tertiary colors: olive, citrine and russet 
Purple and green make olive; orange and green, citrine; purple and orange! 
russet. Thus we have the three classifications denoting all the colors proper 
extant. The varieties of tones, tints, hues and shades obtained from these 
three classes are as kaleidioscopic in their possibilities of combination as 



84 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COL 

the alphabet of letters. The hand of man or the skill of the artist will 
never exhaust them. At the present time there are recorded processes for 
the production of 16,000 differently colored dyes, each capable of forming a 
different color upon textile fabrics. 

Cattle are excited by a bright red color because that color is the com- 
plementary one to green; and as the eyes of the cattle are all day long fixed 
steadily upon the green of the herbiage on which they feed, articles of a 
red color must necessarily impress their vision with greatly increased and 
contrasted intensity, with the result of causing them to grow madly ex- 
cited. Colors not only influence cattle, but human beings also: On this 
point some curious experiments are reported to have occurred in the hos- 
pitals of Italy, as to the effect of colors on the nerves of the sick and in- 
sane. In many hospitals of that country special rooms are arranged 
with red or blue glass in the windows, and also red or blue paint on the 
walls. A violent patient is brought suddenly into a blue room and left to 
the effects of that color on his nerves. One maniac was cured in an hour; 
another was at peace in his mind after passing a day in a room all violet. 
The red room is used for the commonest form of dementia — melancholy, 
usually accompanied by a loss of appetite or a refusal to take food. After 
three hours in a red room, a patient afflicted in this way began to be cheer- 
ful and asked for food. Many sane persons are curiously sensitive to color 
and shapes in surroundings, certain combinations effecting them with almost 
physical pain. As no surroundings are so inevitable as people's clothes, 
dress must be held responsible for a certain amount of intended pleasure 
or annoyance to others. It is said that one's own apparel is not without 
a certain influence on the wearer's own mind. A new color seems to 
bring a new atmosphere with it, and changes oddly enough the level of 
thought. Balzac, the French author, says that a woman's character always 
finds expression in her favorite color. A woman who prefers orange or 
green gowns is, he thinks, quarrelsome. Those who sport yellow hats or 
who go clad in black without cause are not to be trusted. White indicates 
coquetry. Gentle and thoughtful women prefer pink. Pearl-gray is the 
color of women who consider themselves unfortunate. Lilac is the shade 
particularly affected by over ripe beauties; therefore according to this au- 
thority, lilac hats are mostly worn by mothers on their daughter's wed- 
ding day, and by women more than forty years old when they go visiting. 

Wool has generally the strongest affinity to color, when it comes to 
dyeing. Next to wool silk and other animal substances receive it best. Cot- 
ton is the third, and hemp and linen follow successively. As a rule pig- 
ments and dyestuffs do not produce permanent colors, and some substance 
is required to produce an affinity between the cloth and coloring matter. 
The substances that are employed to act as this bond of union are called 
"mordants," [see Calico and Dyeing] whose uses were known to the 
Egyptians and other nations of remote antiquity. Specifically, mordants 
in dyeing and cloth printing, is a body which, having two-fold coloring par- 



COL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 85 

tides, serves as a bond of unity between them, and thus gives a fixity to the 
dyes; or, it signifies a substance which, combined with the coloring parti- 
cles in the pores of the textile filaments, renders them insoluble in soapy 
and weak alkaline solutions. Mordant is also the substance previously 
applied to the goods in order that they may afterward retain in part the 
dye. The chemical activity of the sun's rays is well known, and certain 
colors seem to be decomposed and precipitated more readily under the 
influence of light. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that light should 
also have a very marked effect upon dyed colors. Under the prolonged 
influence of light and air almost all colors fade, and according to their rel- 
ative behavior in this respect they are broadly divided into two classes, 
namely, those which are "fast to light" and those which are "not fast to 
light." Each of the seven colored rays of the spectrum possesses a differ- 
ent fading power. White light is the most active, then follow the yellow, 
blue, green, orange, violet, indigo and red rays. Direct sunlight is more 
energetic than diffused daylight. The light of the electric arc acts in the 
same manner as the sun, but is less powerful. According to the best author- 
ities on colors, the presence of moisture assists very materially in the fad- 
ing action of light, so that even some fugitive colors, dyed for example, 
with safflower annato or orchid, do not fade if exposed to light in dry oxy- 
gen or in vacuo. The term "fast color" generally implies that the color in 
question resists the fading action of the light, but it may also imply that it 
is affected by washing with soap and water, or by the action of acids and 
alkalies, etc. In its wide sense it means that the color is not affected by 
any of those influences to which it is destined to be submitted, but its tech- 
nical influence is often restricted. Many colors may be fairly fast to wash- 
ing with soap and water, and yet be very fugitive toward light; or they may 
be fast to light and yet very sensitive to the action of acids and alkalies. 
The term "loose color" generally implies that the color is much impover- 
ished, or entirely removed, by washing with water or a solution of soap; it 
may, however, also mean that it is not fast to light. The word "perma- 
nent" as applied to color, generally denotes that it is fast to light and other 
natural influences. A "fugitive color" is generally understood to be one 
which is not fast to light. In the absence of any definite meaning being 
attached to the above terms, it becomes imperative in speaking of the fast- 
ness of a color, to refer especially to the particular influence which it does 
or does not resist. 

Combing- Wool. See Wool, Worsted. 

Comforts. The history of the manufacture of comforts, or "bed 
comfortables " as they were styled formerly, is an interesting one. For 
seventeen years the machine-made article has been turned out with con- 
stantly increasing improvement in the process of manufacture, but previous 
to that the old quilting frame and later the sewing machine were utilized, 
and nearly every family made their comforts at home. Now, the machine- 



86 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COM 

made comfort is produced at so low a figure that but few housewives take 
the time to make them by hand, to say nothing of the expense which would 
in all probability be more than it would cost to buy them ready-made. 
With the increase in the output of factory goods, has followed in turn a 
falling off in the sale of cotton bats to the trade, which were formerly so 
largely in demand by the ladies of this country in the making up of the 
article referred to. It is estimated that about 3,000,000 machine-made 
comforters pass into consumption annually, and as the average wholesale 
price is about $1.00, a very fair idea of the volume of business consumated 
each year can be formed. Prices range from $4 to $60 per dozen, the latter 
being of silk and down, and the former composed of the dust and shoddy 
of woolen mills. Sizes run from 60x72 up to 78x84 inches, but the average 
and best selling size is 75x78 inches. The fabrics of which comforts are 
made are all printed specially for the purpose and on very wide cloth. 
Prints are largely used, though satteen covering is increasing in use year 
by year. Down comforts are the best as well as the most expensive variety 
manufactured. Formerly all down comforts were imported and the high 
price of the foreign-made article placed it among the luxuries which were 
only within the reach of the well-to-do. Now, however, with improved 
machinery and a larger demand United States manufacturers are able to 
produce a down comfort which can be retailed for $5, bringing this beauti- 
ful and most comfortable of comforts within the reach of the average 
housekeeper. 

Commission Merchant . An individual or firm who sells goods on a per 
cent, either in his own name or in the name of the foreign or domestic 
manufacturer, and intrusted with the possession, management, control and 
disposal of the goods sold ; differing from a broker, who is an agent 
employed merely to make bargains and contracts between the jobber and 
manufacturer. 

Composition Cloth. A material made from long flax, dressed with a 
chemical which renders it perfectly waterproof ; used for trunk covers, 
and in the manufacture of canvas bags. 

Convent Cloth ; An extremely light weight dress fabric, with a silk 
warp and wool weft, the weave resembling that of linen momie cloth as 
seen in towels, etc. It comes in white and plain colors. 

Cony Fur (co ' -ny). The fur of rabbits and other burrowing animals, 
used for making felt for hats, and also in the manufacture of a cheap grade 
of fur caps. [See Fur.] In the 17th century the Mexicans made many 
beautiful cloths out of cotton and cony fur which they exported to Eng- 
land. The Abbe Clavigoro in his History of Mexico says : " They wove 
their cloths of different figures and colours, representing different animals 
and flowers, which were as delicate and fine as those of Holland. Of 
feathers interwoven with cotton they made mantles and bed curtains, car- 
pets, gowns, and other things, not less soft and beautiful. With cotton 



COP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 87 

they also interwove the finest hair of the belly of rabbits and hares, after 
having made and spun it into thread ; of this they made beautiful cloths, 
and in particular winter waistcoats for the lords." 

Cope. A large, loose outer garment ; a cloak ; a mantle. A large 
mantle of silk or brocade worn by catholic priests in processions. As dis- 
tinguished from the chasuble, the cope is a processional or choral vest- 
ment, while the chasuble is sacrificial or eucharistic. In the University of 
Cambridge, England, the ermine robe worn by a doctor in the senate-house 
on congregation day is called a cope. 

Cordage and Twines. Cordage is a general term for all kinds of 
hemp rope, from cables 12 inches in circumference to common quarter-inch 
clothes line. Ropes were among the earlier necessities of man, and have 
been known in all ages, among all people. There is probably no fibre 
known but what man at some time has utilized in the manufacture of ropes. 
Of all these raw materials the one best adapted for making cordage, on 
account of its cheapness as well as wearing properties, is hemp. A good 
hemp rope is hard but pliant, yellowish or greenish gray in color with a 
certain pearly luster. A dark or blackish color indicates that the hemp 
has suffered from fermentation in the process of curing, and brown spots 
show that the rope was spun while these fibers were damp, and is con- 
sequently soft and weak in those places. Cordage is numbered by inches 
and fractions of inches of diameter. Twine, which is commonly known 
as a strong cord or string, is usually numbered as follows : Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 
flax ball twines, suitable for hardware merchants and manufacturers, ex- 
press companies, etc.; Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, fine flax, grey and colored twine for 
stationers, and Nos. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, red, blue and other colors for druggists, 
etc.; Nos. 14, 16, 17 bleached flax twine for fancy goods, cutlery, etc.; Nos. 
15 and 18 jute and cotton twines for grocers, dry goods stores, etc. There 
are about $8,000,000 worth of flax and hemp twines made in this country 
every year, not the big sorts, such as ropes and cables, but just the num- 
bers one to eighteen, lumped under the broad head of twines. Besides these 
there is a large quantity of cotton string made, and here and there still a 
few paper ones, though the latter — invented when cotton was high-priced 
in the North during the war, and then quite common — are now seldom 
seen There are but 8 twine factories in the United States : 2 in New 
Jersey, 3 in northern New York, 2 in Massachusetts, and 1 (the largest) in 
New York City. The latter employs 800 hands and turns 14,000 pounds 
per day of finished twines and shoe thread, ranging in price from 14 cents 
to $1.50 per pound. In addition to these eight factories, there are scattered 
through the Eastern states a few small establishments, but there are none, 
large or small, in the West or South. [See Flax, Linen, Hemp.] 

Corded Fabrics. A general term used in trade to signify reps, Bed- 
ford and whipcord, pipecord, ottoman and other novelties in dress goods 



88 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COR 

woven with a rib or cord forming the predominating characteristic of the 
fabric. 

Cordovan (cor '-do-van). [From Cordova, a city of Spain, where it 
was first made.] Leather made from the hides of horses. Also called cord- 
wain. 

Corduroy (cor-du-roi ' ). [French cor du roi, royal cord or King's 
cord]. A heavy cotton material, corded or ribbed on the surface. It is ex- 
tremely durable, being especially used for the garments of men engaged 
in rough labor, field sports and the like. The construction of corduroy is 
the same as that of velvet (which see), with a twill foundation and a pile 
surface. The cords are produced by a peculiar disposition of the pile 
threads, they being "thrown in" where the corded portions are, and absent 
in the narrow spaces between them. After leaving the loom and subject- 
ed to the operations of "brushing" and "singeing" to give the cloth a smooth 
and finished surface, it is piece-dyed, usually in shades of olive, slate or 
drab. [See Weaving.] 

Cork. A species of oak, growing in the south of Europe, especially in 
Spain and Portugal and in the north of Africa, having a thick, rough bark, 
for the sake of which the cork tree is often planted. It grows to the height 
of forty feet, and yields bark regularly every eight years for 150 years. 
This outer bark, which grows to a thickness of two inches, is the common 
cork of commerce, and is used for many purposes, especially for stoppers 
for bottles, inner soles of shoes, etc. 

Cork Leather. A variety formed of two sheets of leather with a thin 
layer of cork between them, the whole being glued and pressed together. 

Corkscrew Worsted. [So-called from its fancied resemblance to the 
twists of a corkscrew.] A particular weave which has for several years 
been extensively employed in the manufacture of "worsted" goods, more 
especially in cloths intended for men's clothing. The prolonged duration 
and success of the corkscrew pattern has had but few parallels in the his- 
tory of cloth manufacture, though, at present, clay worsted and cheviot are 
fast driving it out of popular favor. The structure of the ordinary class of 
corkscrew worsted is based on the sateen-twill principle. It is predicted 
that the time is not far distant when fickle fashion will cease entirely to 
smile on this particular weave, and then they will have had their run — 
together with broadcloth and doeskin, they will exist only as memories of 
things that have been. [See Worsted, Woolen.] 

Corset. [French corse, body; Latin corse tus, a close-fitting garment.] 
A close-fitting waist, usually made of quilted jean, stiffened with whale- 
bone, etc., worn by women to give shape and support to the figure 
Corsets of various forms and eccentricities have been worn ever since the 
eyes of man have admired the graceful form of woman. Always with one 
aim and object in view, and that to more fully emphasize the beautifully 
rounded curves of the waist and hips. They have been known by many 



COR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 89 

names and in use by many peoples, but invariably for a single and self- 
same purpose. The Romans knew them under the title of corsetus, the 
Italians, corsetto; the Spanish name was corselete, the Portugese corsolet; 
while the English have dubbed them successively corsete,bodice, stomacher, 
stays and corset. The Parliament of England in 1450 forbid the wives of 
persons not having the yearly income of $200, and widows of less possess- 
'on, to wear corsets of silk made out of the realm,, or any coverchief ex- 
ceeding a certain price. In the 15th and 16th centuries corsets were elab- 
orate affairs with skirts and sleeves attached to them and worked with lace 
and gold. They varied in length, shape and amplitude, being occasionally 
lined with costly furs and trimmings of every imaginable description. The 
old way of fastening a corset was to lace it up every time it was put on. 
This required considerable time. The later plan adopted by manufacturers 
and the one now universally used is to have at the front a pair of steel 
bands that are fastened by a little catch. These little catches are made of 
white metal, and there are four or five of them on each corset. The weight 
of a set of "catches" is not greater than an ordinary thimble, yet one Con- 
necticut firm uses about 32 tons of white metal a year to make these 
catches. The steel required for the stays amounts to hundreds of tons, 
and there are separate factories devoted to the production of the steels. 
The steels are tempered to about the consistency of a watch spring, and 
there is a surprising amount of work for 10 cents a pair upon these. Cor- 
sets, like other ready-made clothing are made of all sorts and sizes, and 
from all prices from 25 cents to $50 each. A full "size" of a corset means 
1 inch, expressed 18, 19, 20 up to 40, and representing the actual waist 
measure of the wearer. Imported corsets are the most expensive of the 
ready-made kinds, but when made "to order" the highest prices are 
reached. Ordinary women will get along with a couple of corsets a year, 
costing $3, but when it comes to corsets made of silk or satin, and trimmed 
with costly lace and made to suit certain whims or different costumes, the 
cost becomes a very considerable item. Formerly corsets depended for 
their stiffness entirely opon whalebone, but when gas and coal oil destroyed 
the whale fishery and whalebone grew scarce and expensive, steel was in- 
troduced and substituted for whalebone. This was good for the fronts, but 
has never been available for the small bones at the sides. The principal 
substitute for whalebone is horn. This is chiefly manufactured in France 
from South American horns, and the stuff is imported cut into narrow 
strips ready for use. Efforts have been made to substitute cellu- 
loid, various kinds of wood and hard rubber strips, but nothing has yet 
been found so good as the whalebone or the horn. There are great corset 
factories at Newark, Detroit, New York and Chicago, but the larger part 
manufactured in this country are made in Connecticut and Massachusetts. 
The figures of the 11th Census show that there are over 10,000 persons employ- 
ed in the United States making corsets, the value of what they produce being 
about $10,000,000. Besides this, immense quantities are imported 



90 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COR 

from France and England, the total consumption being not quite 60,000,000 
a year. The names and shapes of corsets are patented, and in the 
past ten years there has been much costly litigation over patents that would 
appear to be insignificant outside of the trade. 

Corset Jean. A double-fold, calendered cotton drilling, used princi- 
pally in the manufacture of corsets and for lining the waists of ladies' 
dresses. [See Jean.] 

Cote de Cheval (cote de chee'-val). A light-weight wool dress fabric, 
with a slight mixture of camel's hair, woven with a longitudinal cord like 
corduroy, in color both mixed and plain; known also to the trade as cash- 
mere chevron. 

Cotton. Among all the materials which the skill of man converts into 
comfortable and elegant clothing, that which appears to be the most ex- 
tensively useful, though it was the last to be generally diffused, is the 
beautiful product of the cotton plant. The native botanical home of cot- 
ton is in the far East. Since the 5th century B. C, India almost every- 
where throughout her wide-spread domain has arrayed, as she still arrays, 
herself in cotton, gathered from a plant of the Gossypium family, which 
has its wild growth there. More than two thousand years before England 
conceived the idea of applying modern industry to the manufacture of cot- 
ton, India had matured a system of hand weaving which during all that 
vast period received no recorded improvement. The people, though 
remarkable for their intelligence whilst Europe was in a state of barbarism, 
made no attempt to improve upon their laborious hand processes, nor was 
the cultivation of the plant either improved or considerably extended. 
Possessing soil, climate, and all the requisite elements from nature for the 
production of cotton to an almost boundless extent, and of a useful and 
acceptable quality, India for a long series of years did but little toward 
supplying the manufacturers of other countries with the raw material 
which they required. With the discovery of America, however, a com- 
petitor arose in the production of this valuable staple, which was soon to 
take first rank in the cotton-producing countries of the world. Tardy and 
uncertain as was the development of our cotton industry prior to 1792, the 
invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney in that year, gave it a magical 
impetus which in a hundred years has placed the United States foremost 
among all nations for production and manufacture of this fibre. We have 
accomplished more by adpating the cotton-gin to this industry in one 
century, than India has accomplished in twenty, and have every reason to 
be proud of our record. It would be impossible to enumerate the results 
of this great mechanical invention. Its influence extends to all ranks of 
society and to every region of the world. Like the telegraph, the steam- 
boat, and other great inventions, the cotton-gin has had a striking influence 
upon modern civilization. It changed the occupation and modes of life of 
great multitudes in both Europe and America; it demanded and brought 



COT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 91 

about new inventions to supplement its work; it transformed the sluggish 
life of the South into a life of activity, power and wealth. Its effect upon 
the production of cotton was immediate and striking. Cotton was an un- 
important factor in the colonies prior to this invention, but a small amount 
being grown annually. In 1786 attention was called to the possibility of 
raising cotton for the English market, and more vigorous efforts were made. 
In 1791 the South produced 2,000,000 pounds, of which 190,000 pounds were 
exported. The following year, however, the exportation was but 50,000 
pounds. So difficult, in fact, was the process of ginning (removing the 
seeds) that tobacco, indigo and rice bade fair to be the chief and permanent 
products of the Southern states. In the winter of 1892 — 93 came the in- 
vention of the cotton-gin. Encouraged by the hope of its success, the 
planters during the following season (1793) raised 5,000,000 pounds of cot- 
ton, and sent a half-million pounds to Europe. During the following year 
the use of the cotton-gin became more general in Georgia and South Caro- 
lina. It is not surprising, therefore, to find a product of 8,000,000 pounds 
in 1794, and an exportation of over 1,500,000 pounds. Year after year 
the area of the cotton-producing country, the number of planters and their 
slaves, and the amount and value of the crop, showed rapid growth. In 
1800 the product was 35,000,000 pounds; in 1810, 85,000,000; in 1820, 160,- 
000,000; in 1830, 350,000,000; in 1840, 880,000,000; in 1880, 3,200,000,000; in 
1892, 4,500,000,000. The debt which the nation and the world owe to Eli 
Whitney is proclaimed by the eloquence of statistics. They indicate that 
Robert Fulton was not wrong when he said that "Arkwright, Watt and 
Whitney were the three men who did most for mankind of any of their con- 
temporaries." Nor was Lord Macaulay too extravagant in saying, "What 
Peter the Great did to make Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of 
the cotton-gin has more than eqalled in its relation to the power and 
progress of the United States." Whitney's tomb at New Haven, Conn., 
bears the following inscription: 



ELI WHITNEY, 

The inventor of the cotton gin, 

Of useful science and arts, the efficient patron and improver. 

in the Social relations of life, a model of excellence. 

While private affection weeps at his tomb, his country honors his 

memory. 
Born December 8th, 1765.— died January 8th, 1825. 



The sowing-time for cotton extends from the beginning of March to 
the end of April, the early part of the latter month being considered the 
most eligible because of there being less danger to the young plants from 
the occurrence of frost — that fearful bane to the cotton planter. The'seed 



92 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COT 

is sown in ridges, paralleled by furrows, for the purpose of draining off the 
superfluous water. After the plants have attained a moderate height they 
are thinned out, so as to remove those that promise badly, and to leave 
sufficient space to those that are vigorous ; this space varies from 10 to 20 
inches. The soil is carefully weeded and the plants are still further thin- 
ned, if their luxuriant growth should require that process as the season 
advances. As the summer approaches, and the frost has disappeared, the 
crop is liable to injury from the heavy rains and the attacks of a cater- 
pillar which feeds voraciously upon the leaves of the plant. The blossom 
then appears, varying in color from yellow to red, and lastly brown. From 
the blossom the pod is formed which in time bursts into a boll of snowy 
white. It is said that no crop in the United States presents an appearance 
so beautiful as growing cotton, especially at the gathering season, when the 
globes of snowy wool are seen among the glossy dark green leaves, exhib- 
iting on a single stem the expanding blossom, the bursting pod and the 
snowy flakes of ripe cotton. The season of picking commences in the 
latter part of July, and continues without intermission to the Christmas 
holidays. The work is not heavy, but becomes tedious from its sameness. 
Each hand is supplied with a basket and a bag. The basket is left at the 
head of the cotton row ; the bag being suspended from the picker's 
shoulder by a strap, and used to hold the cotton as it is taken from the 
boll. When the bag is full it is emptied into the basket, and this routine 
continued throughout the day. Each hand picks from 150 to 200 pounds 
of seed cotton each day ; however, some negroes of extraordinary ability 
go beyond this amount. The problem of gathering cotton from the plant 
in a more expeditious manner than is done at present by hand has racked 
the brains of mechanics for a generation, and a hundred devices more or 
less, have been patented which were designed to accomplish this purpose. 
The difficulty encountered by this host of inventors has been so great that 
up to the present time cotton is still gathered by hand exclusively. There 
has, however, been recently invented a machine which experts and 
planters, who are interested, think has at last solved the cotton-gathering 
problem. The new machine resembles the frame of a wagon on four 
wheels, and straddles the rows, so to speak ; a driving-wheel, set revolving 
by the machine as the horses draw it along,, turns several wheels placed 
horizontally on top of the machine. These wheels turn perpendicular 
rods that reach down on each side of the cotton row. To these rods are 
attached at right angles pieces of wires which describe rapid half circles, 
beating the cotton plant in their sweep, or "agitating it." This agitation 
knocks off the cotton, which falls on a movable floor and carries the fibre 
back to a huge bag fastened to the rear of the machine. A slight blow will 
usually cause the cotton to drop, but if any remains, fans in the top of the 
machine create an air current that blows off the residue. The ripening of 
cotton proceeds in three stages, that nearest the ground ripening first, 
then that about the middle of the plant, and lastly the top crop. The first 



COT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 93 

picking is usually small and unrenumerative ; the second picking is the 
heaviest, while the third or top picking is frequently poor, and in many 
cases abandoned entirely, so that it is estimated that of the cotton actually 
grown fully 10 per cent, is lost by abandonment, as it does not pay to keep 
the hands together for picking. 

The three principal varieties of cotton cultivated in the United States 
are the "Sea Island", the "New Orleans", and the "Upland" varieties, 
which taken together are unequalled by the products of any other part of 
the globe. The Sea Island cotton, grown in the soft and balmy climate of 
low-lying islands off the coast of Georgia, Carolina and Florida, where frost 
is scarcely known, has surpassed all other varieties of cotton in the length 
and beauty or its staple. The delicate and silken filaments render it 
highly valuable for the production of the finest yarns. It is never introduced 
into the coarser muslins, but is used for the most delicate fabrics, and 
exclusively for the manufacture of sewing thread, being also consumed 
in large quantities by silk manufacturers, the fine, soft and glossy fibre 
rendering a mixture with the thread of the silk worm difficult to be 
detected. The largest crop of Sea Island cotton ever harvested was 
picked in 1891-92, amounting to 68,000 bales, or about 40 per cent, more 
than any former crop. The average price is about 30 cents per pound. 
Over half of this cotton is annually shipped to Europe, to be manufactured 
into the finest grades of cotton fabrics. The long, bright fibre is also used 
largely in the manufacture of fine "silk" striped silesias for coat and sleeve 
linings; producing a stripe that no more visual and tactual examination 
can distingush from silk. "Upland" cotton is generally a light, flimsy 
cotton, of a weak and very unequal staple, used ordinarily for the filling, 
or weft threads. "New Orleans" cotton is superior to Upland, and has the 
preference on account of its Clean, soft, and glossy appearance. It is 
rather short in staple, but even and strong. [See Egyptian Cotton.] 

The following is the classification of the different grades of raw cotton 
in the markets of the United States : 

Fair, barely fair, strict middling fair, fully middling fair, barely mid- 
dling fair. 

Strict good middling, fully good middling, good middling, barely good 
middling, Strict middling, fully middling, middling, barely middling. 

Strict low middling, fully low middling, low middling, barely low 
middling. 

Strict good ordinary, fully good ordinary, good ordinary, barely good 
ordinary, strict ordinary, fully ordinary, ordinary. 

The full grades are fair, middling fair, good middling, middling, good 
ordinary and ordinary. 

The half grades are designated by the prefixes "barely", meaning the 
mean point between the. half grade and the next full grade above, and 
"fully" meaning the mean point between the half-grade and the next full 
grade below. 



94 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COT 

The average yield of cotton in the South varies from 140 to 180 pounds 
per acre. A bale of cotton, as it appears in commerce weighs 500 pounds, 
to produce which 1600 pounds of seed cotton is required ; and at the rate 
of 80 cents per 100 pounds for picking, it costs to pick one bale of cotton 
$12.80, or to pick the crop of 1892, of 9,000,000 bales, there was expended 
the fabulous sum of $120,000,000. "Seed cotton" is the term applied to the 
staple before it has been cleansed of its weighty proportion of seeds by 
the "gin". Every boll of cotton contains seeds resembling unground 
coffee, which, when removed, leave only about one-third in weight of clean 
cotton. After leaving the gin, it is wound in a fleecy state upon a large 
wooden roller and transferred to the carding machine. 

Carding of cotton is the process of disentangling and arranging in par- 
allel rows the fibres of the cotton so as to facilitate the twisting of them to- 
gether. Carding may be compared to the combing and brushing of one's 
hair, and the card combines the properties of the comb and brush, being a 
large brush with wire teeth instead of bristles. These teeth are inserted in 
strips of leather, which are fastened to the surface of a cylinder. Several 
of such cylinders are so arranged that the ends of the teeth are nearly in 
contact, and the cotton being brought to them is caught up, passed from 
one to the other and combed out, as the cylinders turn round, in the form 
of beautiful films or fleeces. These films, which are the width of the cylin- 
ders, are next contracted to a narrow ribbon by being passed through a 
funnel and drawn out in order to make them ready for the next process, 
called spinning. 

For spinning cotton there are two kinds of machines used — "throstles" 
and "mules." The throstle is employed in the spinning of yarn for warps. 
This yarn has its fibre more closely twisted than that spun upon the mule, 
and is more esteemed for certain purposes, especially for making sewing 
thread. The mule, or mule-jenny, differs from the throstle in that it spins 
a yarn much finer and softer, though more woolly in texture than throstle- 
yarn; mule-yarn, besides forming the weft of cloths, is also doubled and 
used for a variety of purposes wherein a lightly-twisted, thread-like yarn is 
not required. The principle of attenuating the yarn is, however, the same 
in both machines, consisting of several pairs of rollers turned by means of 
machinery. The lower roller of each pair is fluted or furrowed, and the 
upper one is covered with leather to induce it to take hold of the cotton. If 
there were only one pair of rollers, it is clear that the fibre passed between 
them would be drawn forward by the revolution of the rollers, similar to 
running a string through a clothes-wringer; but the cotton would merely 
undergo a certain degree of compression or flattening from their action. 
No sooner, however, has the fibre begun to pass through the first pair of 
rollers than it is received by a second pair, which are made to revolve four 
times as fast as the first pair, thus attenuating it, and so on through several 
sets of rollers, drawing the thread out finer and finer. By this ingenious 



20 


' 20 ' 


50 


' 50 ' 


60 


' 60 ' 


70 


' 70 ' 


80 


' 80 ' 


90 


* 90 ' 


100 


• 100 ' 



COT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 95 

contrivance the mass of cotton may be drawn out into a thread of any de- 
sired length or size 

Cotton after being spun is folded in hanks of 840 yards each. The 
number or "size" of this cotton yarn depends upon the number of hanks, 
840 yards long, that weigh one pound, as illustrated by the following table: 
Of No. 10 yarn, 10 hanks of 840 yards each weigh one pound 
" 840 
« 840 
« 8 4o 

.. 840 
„ 840 

« 840 
" 840 

Cotton is never woven in its natural state, that is, as it comes from the 
spinning frame. It always receives a dressing or coating of some kind of 
liquid " size," which is allowed to dry on the yarn before the weaving 
begins. The object is to diminish the roughness on the surface of the 
threads, and to increase their tension power, thereby facilitating the weav- 
ing. A manufacturing firm in Connecticut, some years ago, produced the 
finest cotton yarn ever woven into muslin by machinery — 700s. The same 
firm has produced since yarn No. 2150, but this was merely for experimen- 
tal and not for weaving purposes. A pound of the finest Sea Island cotton 
spun of this fineness would be a thousand miles in length. Some idea of 
the tenuity of cotton fibres may be formed when it is remembered that 
14,000 to 20,000 individual filaments of American cotton only weigh one 
grain, so that there are about 140,000,000 to every pound, and each hair 
weighs only about the 1-17,000 part of a grain, and if the separate fibres 
were placed end to end in a straight line, one pound would reach 2,200 
miles. The beauty or excellence of some cotton cloths consist in the close- 
ness of their texture; that of others, in the openess and regularity of the 
intervals between the warp apd weft threads. Recent experiments have 
shown that cotton may be heated to 248° F. for three hours without appar- 
ent injury. The same is true of printed cottons. The temperature, how- 
ever, if continued for a long period, will slightly alter the color of cotton, 
but will not otherwise injure it. According to the most reliable historical 
and manufacturing authorities, no cotton sheetings, shirtings, ginghams or 
checks were made in the United States prior to 1790. All these classes of 
goods were then imported, being of English manufacture, and of linen 
warp with cotton weft. 

The accompanying table gives the number of cotton spindles in the 
United States in 1880 and 1890. 

1880. 1890. 

Alabama 49,432 96,647 

Arkansas 2,015 13,700 

California .... 



96 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COT 

1880. 1890. 

Colorado 

Connecticut 939,376 1,023,928 

Dakota 

Delaware..... 46,188 61,714 

Florida 816 1,300 

Georgia 198,656 442,148 

Idaho 

Illinois 4,830 26,000 

Indiana 33,396 61,868 

Iowa 6,000 

Kansas .... 

Kentucky 9,022 42,500 

Louisiana 6,096 61,168 

Maine 695,924 812,722 

Maryland 125,706 176,800 

Massachusetts 4,236,084 5,905,875 

Michigan 5,100 

Minnesota 1,708 

Mississippi 18,658 54,800 

Missouri 19,302 17,500 

Montana .... 

N ebraska 

New Hampshire. .... .V... ..... V.V. V.! ............ 944,053 l,207,3i2 

New Jersey 232,221 351,068 

New York 561,658 619,472 

North Carolina 92,385 321,070 

Ohio 13,327 26,152 

Oregon .... 

Pennsylvania 425,391 445,962 

Rhode Island 1,746,539 1,948,958 

South Carolina 82,334 351,040 

South Dakota .... 

Tennessee 35,736 116,788 

Texas 2,648 17,734 

Utah 432 288 

Vermont 55,081 62,775 

Virginia 44,340 79,612 

Washington .... .... 

West Virginia .... .... 

Wisconsin 10,000 32,128 

Wyoming .... .... 

Total 10,653,435 14,385,024 

England in 1890, had in operation 42,740,000 cotton spindles; European 
Continent 23,380,000; East India 2,490,000; Canada, Mexico aud South 
America 600,000, and Japan 100,000. The largest cotton mill in the world 
is that of Kranholm, in Russia. This colossal establishment contains 
340,000 spindles, and 2,200 looms, and gives employment to 7,000 hands. 



COT 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

CROP OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SIXTY YEARS. 



The average net weight per bale is 440 pounds. 



97 



Yeab. 


Bales. 


Yeab. 


Bales. 


Yeab. 


Bales. 


Yeab. 


Bales. 


1829 


870,415 


1844 


2,030,409 ' 


1859 


3,851,481 


1877 


4,485,423 


1830 


976,845 


1845 


2,394,503 


1860 


4,669,770 


1878 


4,811,265 


1831. 


1,038,848 


1846. 


2,100,537 


1861 


3,656,006 


1879 


5,073,531 


1832 


987,487 


1847 


1,778,651 


1862-1865- 


No record 


1880 


5,757,397 


1833 


1,070,438 


1848 


2,347,634 


1866 


2,193,987 


1881 - 


6,589,829 


1834 


1,205,324 


1849. 


2,728,596 


1867 


2,019,774 


1882. 


5,435,845 


1835 


1,254,328 


1850 


2,096,706 


1868 


2,593,993 


1883 


6,992,234 


1836 


1,360,752 


1851 


2,355,257 


1869 


2,439,039 


1884 


5,714,052 


1837 


1,422,930 


1852 


3.015,029 


1870 


3,154,946 


1885 


5,669,021 


1838 


1,801,497 


1853 


3,262,882 


1871 


4,352,317 


1886 


6,550,215 


1839 


1,360,532 , 


1854 


2,930,027 


1872 


2,974,351 


1887 


6,513,624 


1840 


2,177,835 


1855 


2,847,338 


1873 


3,930,508 


1888 


7,017,707 


1841 


1,634,945 


1856 


3,527,845 


1874 


4,170,388 


1889 


6,935,082 


1842 


1,683,574 


1857 


2,939,519 


1875 


3,832,991 


1890 


7,313,726 


1843 


2,378,875 




3,113,962 


1876 


4.669,288 







EXPORTS AND DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION OF AMERICAN COTTON. 



Export to Europe- 
Consumption U.S., 

Canada, etc 

Total 



1889-90. 



Bales. 

4,885,326 
2,431,757 



7,317,C 



Bales. 

4,700,198 
2,372,641 



7,072,830 



1887-88. 



Bales. 
4,602,248 
2,259,606 



Bales. 

4,296,825 
2,087,785 



6,861,650 6,384,610 



1886-87. 



Bales. 
4,414,326 
2,265,324 



6,679,650 



1884-85. 



Bales. 
3,898,905 
1,764,326 



5,663,231 



1883-84. 



Bales. 

3,880,466 
2,042,867 



5,923,333 



COTTON CONSUMPTION OF THE ENTIRE WORLD. 



Consumption Bales, 400 lbs. 


Great 
Britain. 


Continent. 


Total 
Europe. 


Total 
United 
States. 


Total 
World. 


1880-81 


3,572,000 
3,640,000 
3,744,000 
3,666,000 
3,433,000 
3,628,000 
3,694,000 
3,841,000 
3,770,000 
4,027,000 


2,956,000 
3,198,000 
3,380,000 
3,380,000 
3,255,000 
3,465,000 
3,640,000 
3,796,000 
4,069,000 
4,277,000 


6,528,000 
6,838,000 
7,124,000 
7,046,000 
6,688,000 
7,093,000 
7,334,000 
7,637,000 
7,839,000 
8,304,000 


2,118,000 
2,197,000 
2,375,000 
2,244,000 
1,909,000 
2.378,000 
2,423,000 
2,530,000 
2,685,000 
2,731,000 


8,640,000 


1881-82 

1882-83... 


9,035,000 
9,499,000 


1883-84 


9,290,000 


1884-85 


8,597,000 
9,371,000 
9,757,000 


1885-86 


1886-87 


1887-88 


10,167,000 


1888-89 


10,524,000 


1889-90. 


11,035,000 



SOURCES OF COTTON SUPPLY. 





Total. 




Total. 


America 


Bales. 

7,434,000 

1,740,000 

460,000 

40,000 




Bales. 
290,000 




Total 

Averageweight 

Bales of 400 lbs 




Egypt 

Smyrna .__ 


9,964,000 

455.1 

11,336,000 



98 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. COT 

Cotton Flannel. See Canton Flannel. 

Cotton Damask. A material woven in different colors, used for cur- 
tains and upholstery. [See Damask]. 

Cotton Rep. A heavy, corded cotton cloth used for the lining of 
curtains, etc. [See Rep]. 

Cotton Wadding. See Wadding. 

Cotton Velvet. See Velveteen. 

Cottonade. A coarse heavy variety of cotton cloth, woven plain or 
twilled, used for men's cheap clothing. Of recent years cottonade has lost 
its former popularity, on account of the more stylish cotton "cassimeres" 
and "worsteds" which have come into fashion, and also from the fact that 
shoddy woolen goods can be purchased for almost the same price. Many 
of the old cottonade mills which once did a flourishing business now do not 
make the old fabric except in small quantities for special orders. 

Countermand. [Latin contra, against, mandare, command]. An order 
in direct opposition to an order previously given, thereby annulling it and 
forbidding its execution. 

Counterpane. [A corruption of French counterpoint, point against 
point, in allusion to the panes or squares of which bed covers were often 
composed.] The top cover for a bed; a coverlet or quilt; specifically a 
coverlet woven of cotton, with raised figures, now called a Marseilles 
Quilt. [See Quilts, Marseilles.] 

Coventry Blue. Thread principally used for purposes of embroidery.of 
a vivid blue, very popular in England in the 16th century, and for many 
years manufactured at Coventry, whence the name. In a letter attributed 
to Shakespeare, with the long-winded title of A Compendious and Brief 
Examination of Certain Complaints of divers of our Countrymen in these 
our days, on the decay of Towns, the writer says: "I have heard say that 
the chiefe trade of Coventry was heretofore in making blue threde, and 
then the town was riche, even upon that trade in manner only; and now 
our threde comes all from beyond the sea; therefore that trade is now de- 
cayed, and thereby the town likewise." 

Coverlet. Quilt, coverlid, coverlet, counterpoint and counterpane at 
different times have been used to describe the same article. Our Saxon 
ancestors were not so nice in their night garments as we are. As a matter 
of fact, they lay during the night destitute of clothing, which we find de- 
nounced in the practice of servants throwing their chemises at candles to 
put them out. The bed for the Common people was a trough filled with 
straw, and over this was placed a skin or cloak, which is said to have been 
called a cover-lid. Painted or embroidered coverlids for the nobility were 
termed chalons, from their having been originally brought from Chalons, 
a town in France. The trade. of making these bed coverings brought about 
the current surname of chaloner. In 1454 an Act of Parliament related 



COV COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 99 

that York City had been formerly supported by sundry handicrafts, and 
most principally by making' coverlets and coverings for beds, whereby great 
numbers of inhabitants and poor people in that city and suburbs have been 
constantly employed. But that of late years "sundry evil-disposed per- 
sons, apprentices not expert in that occupation, had withdrawn themselves 
out of that city into the county, and divers other persons inhabiting the 
villages and towns of that county and nigh to the said city, have inter- 
meddled with the said craft, and do daily make coverlets, neither of good 
stuff or proper size and do hawk and sell them abroad in the country, 
to villages and men's houses, etc., to the great deceit of the King's sub- 
jects," therefore it was enacted, that no person whatever, within or nigh to 
the county of York, shall make any coverlets for sale, but inhabitants alone 
dwelling within the city of York and its suburbs. 

Cowl. A hood attached to a gown or robe, and admitting of being 
drawn over the head or of being worn hanging on the shoulders ; worn 
chiefly by monks, and characteristic of their dress or profession. 

Crape. [The same word as French crepe, formerly spelled crespe, 
from Latin crespus, crisp, curled, frizzled.] A thin, semi-transparent fabric 
made of silk or cotton, finely crinkled or crisped, either irregularly or in 
long parallel ridges. It is made white, black and also colored. The 
black has a peculiarly sombre appearance, and is hence considered espec- 
ially appropriate for mourning purposes. Mourning or "hard" crepes are 
woven of hand-spun silk yarn "in the gum", or natural condition, the 
crimp being produced by pressing the fabric between heavy steel rollers, 
the surface of which are so creased and indented as to produce the pattern 
desired. Commercially the qualities are distinguished as "single", 
"double", "3-ply" and "4-ply". Albert Crepe is a variety composed of a 
union of silk and cotton. Victoria Crepe is of all cotton. 'Canton 
Crepe is a very cheap, soft cotton material woven with a wrinkled effect 
similar to Crepe de Chine. Crinkled Crepe is another airy fabric, 
woven after the manner of crinkled seersucker, dyed in solid colors. Im- 
perial Crepe is a crinkly gossamer silk fabric used for ladies' neckwear. 
India Crepe is a fine silk crepe gauze, of extremely light texture. Japan 
or "soft" crepe is, after silk damasks the favorite fabric of the Japanese 
for dress, and of late years has become very popular in the United States. 
The wavy appearance of this fabric is due to the peculiar manner in which 
the weft thread is prepared, the yarn from bobbins being twisted 
together in the reverse way, that is, one to the left and the other to the 
right. The cloth is then woven with two shuttles, four wefts being beat 
up of the /<y?-twisted thread from one shuttle, and the same number of the 
r^^/-twisted thread from the other shuttle. On the removal of the cloth 
from the loom it is placed in a bath and boiled for some hours, and then 
washed, after which it is found to have shrunk considerably in breadth. 
It is then stretched and rolled on a wooden cylinder, and dried in the sun 



100 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CRA 

When finished the cloth has the uneven surface liked by the Japanese, 
and which it will always retain. Formerly Japan crepe was woven in 
narrow widths, from 12 to 14 inches, but at present the width in the cheaper 
qualities runs from 24 to 27 inches. From the weaver the cloth passes to 
the printer. The printing factories are, like all those which are truly 
Japanese in origination and management, very small and primitive, from 
20 to 40 workmen being usually employed. The sheds are open on three 
sides, and are filled with rows of long narrow tables or boards on trestles. 
On these are stretched the cottons or crepes to be dyed, and to the rafters 
above are hung the boards on which the stuffs partly printed, are drying 
before completion of the process ; the machinery consists solely of a few 
stencil plates, brushes and saucers of fluid paints, and the human hands- — 
which, however, are the most ingenious, obedient and successful machines 
when guided by the mind of an artist workman. The process is simple. 
Imagine, for example, that a real Japanese pattern, such as that of a white 
fan decorated with a design of birds, is being printed. Each fan may con- 
tain a different design if wished ; the method is the same. A stencil plate 
made of stout water-proof paper is temporarily fixed by broadawls to the 
cloth and table beneath, and with a bamboo spatula a paste made of rice 
and other materials is spread rapidly and evenly over the surface of the 
plate. The paste passes on to the cloth through the patterned spaces of 
the stencil plate, and thus covers the parts it is intended to leave white in 
in the design. The plate is then removed and the rice paste allowed to 
dry. The workman passes down the long table, which is the length of the 
entire piece of cloth, and, using the same stencil plate, he quickly covers 
over the intended white spaces throughout the whole extent of the cloth. 
A series of stencil plates are then used in succession in order to draw in 
the outlines and put in the colors and shades of the design. 

Thus, one plate will give the outlines of one-half of the birds and flow- 
ers, the rest of the outlines being completed by the next plate. With a 
third plate the brown tints of the birds' wings are put in, with a fourth their 
beaks and claws, with a fifth any other color of their plumage, with a sixth 
the pink shades of the plum blossoms, with a seventh the green leaves, and 
so on, the number of the stencil plates being only limited by the complica- 
tion of the design and by the variety of the color and tints in it. The colors 
are laid on moist, with flat round brushes. The depth, tone, and shading 
of the colors depend on the taste and skill of the workman, and it is delight- 
ful to watch him at work and to find how instinctively and rapidly he feels 
that a tone is here too strong, there too weak, and to see him shade and 
temper it by dipping his brush into the dish of clean water always at hand, 
or deepen it with a few strokes of the paint brush. Rapidly the design in 
all its complication grows beneath the apt fingers of the printer, and soon 
the long strip of cotton or silk crape is covered with fans and birds and 
flowers; but the base of the cloth still remains white. To dye it blue the 
parts which have been already printed are covered with a thick 1 ayer of 



CRA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 101 

rice paste. When dry the whole surface of the cloth is brushed over with 
a paste of indigo and rice, or, it is dipped into the indigo vat. The cloth 
is then steamed to obtain fixing of the colors by the mordants with which 
the dyes are mixed, add finally the rice paste is washed off, when the de- 
sign of birds and plum blossoms, on a white fan on a blue ground will appear 
as clean and distinct as if just drawn with the brush. The simplest designs 
of mere dots and lines are executed by the same process, as well as the 
most elaborate. 

Crape Cloth. An all-wool dress fabric, dyed in all colors. It is of an 
irregular weave, similar to Japan crape. 

Crash. A general term used to denote a strong coarse linen fabric; 
chiefly used for toweling, tarpaulins, packing, etc. Crash and towels, both 
in their use and title, have remained unchanged for a long period, even if 
they have ever known change. The Egyptians 4,000 years ago wove 
crash and toweling out of the same fibre that they are made of at the pres- 
ent day; wove it out of finer threads and made it more durable than it is 
possible to do with our modern machinery and acquired skill in weaving. 
It is often assumed that manufactures can be most successfully conducted 
in factories, and that modern machinery has quite superseded the old- 
fashioned, but ever deft human hand and fingers. This is an error. Some 
of the most exquisite linen manufacturers of the world were wrought by the 
ancient Egyptian peoples, and are carried on even yet by the hands of 
peasants in remote valleys and mountain solitudes. It is also an error to 
suppose that Ireland grows more flax and produces more linen or more 
crash than other countries. The latest correct statistics show as follows: 
Flax grown on the Continent of Europe, 3,700,000 acres; Ireland 123,000 
acres (about one-half the area of an ordinary county in any of the States), 
and in the United States 1,284,812 acres. Of this Minnesota raised 167,264 
acres; Dakota 488,993; Iowa, 265,000; Nebraska 150,932, besides a large 
acreage in the western part of Wisconsin. Ireland in 1891 imported 90,000 
tons of flax from Russia and Belguim, and this imported fiber is better 
than they raise at home. Ireland manufactures less than one-fourth of the 
linen produced in the world, and but an infinitesimal part of the crash 
consumed in this country. In no country in the world does the cultivation 
of flax attain such large dimensions as in Russia. Russia alone produces 
more flax than all other countries of Europe combined. Out of the total 
area sown in Europe with flax, and amounting to about 5,700,000 acres, 
more than 3,700,000 acres are sown in Russia. Notice at the same time 
must be taken of the fact that while in all European countries without ex- 
ception the area of land under the cultivation of flax is being annually 
more and more reduced, it is in Russia, on the contrary, being increased. 
The total quantity of flax fibre produced in the whole of Europe is esti- 
mated to be 1,354,000,000 pounds. The share of the total quantity which 
Russia annually produces is exactly two-thirds. It is from Russia that the 



102 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. CRA 

crash manufacturers in the United States procure their unbleached linen 
yarn for the manufacture of toweling, though there is no crash manufact- 
ured in this country above 14 cents per yard wholesale. Within a radius 
of 400 miles of Minneapolis, Minn., there was raised in 1891 over 500,000 
acres of flax. The new linen mills established in that city manufacture 
several grades of crash which are pronounced to be superior to that of 
European mills. Each piece of cloth sent out is branded: "This crash is 
guarranteed. Made by the Minneapolis Linen Mill, of pure American 
flax-fibre. It is superior to the imported fabric." These mills turn out 
2,000 yards of cloth per day, with a capacity of 6,000 yards. They also 
manufacture twine of an excellent quality. [See Linen.] 

Cravat. [From German cmte] A piece of folded silk, satin or other 
material worn about the neck, generally outside of a linen collar, by men. 
In 1736 a regiment of German soldiers arrived in Paris, France, in the dress 
of which one characteristic was much admired by the Parisans — a neck- 
wrapper of silk (called a crabaf) worn by the men and muslin by the soldiers, 
all alike tied in a bow with pendant ends, and used by them, it is said, to 
support an amulet worn as a charm against sword-cuts. The gay Parisians 
speedily adopted the novelty; and whenever Paris starts a fashion the bal- 
ance of the world meekly follows it. In time cravat came to denote any 
kind of a scarf not made up, which was tied after being placed around the 
neck. When first introduced it was commonly of- linen, edged with lace. 
At the beginning of the 17th century it was worn very long, and it is often 
seen in pictures passed through the buttonhole of the coat or waistcoat. 
In 1840 and earlier the cravat consisted of a triangular silk kerchief, usually 
black, wound twice round the neck. Formerly, when starched linen cravats 
were worn, perfection in the art of tying them was one of the eviable ac- 
complishments of a dandy. The cravat differs properly from the scarf, in 
this, that whether tied or passed through a ring or held by a pin, hangs 
down over the shirt-front in pendent ends. 

Cravenette (crav-en-et ' ). A system of water-proofing woolen fab- 
rics. It is applied to a large variety of materials, which are used in the 
manufacture of mackintoshes, etc., for ladies. 

Crazy-quilt. A kind of patch-work quilt, in which irregular pieces of 
silk and other material are applied upon a foundation in fantastic patterns, 
or without any regular pattern, and having their edges stitched and em- 
broidered in various ways. 

Crepe de Chine (crape de sheen). A variety of extremely thin and 
highly lustrous crape dress-silk distinguished by its changeable or 
"shadow" surface. [See Crape, Chine]. 

Crepe-Lisse (crape-leece). A fine thin silk material, plain woven; 
used for women's ruching, drecses, etc. [See Lisse]. 

Crepon (crep'-on or cre-pon'). A dress fabric resembling crape but 



CRE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 103 

not so thin and gauzy, made of silk or wool or silk and wool mixed; a term 
applied to crinkled effects in general. Crepon novelties are frequently 
woven with narrow satin stripes, or cords. Cotton fabrics are also printed 
in crepon effects. 

Cretonne (cre-ton'). [Derived from the name of the first maker, 
M. Cretonne, of Paris]. Originally a strong white fabric of hempen warp 
and linen weft, with various textures of surface, sometimes plain but 
oftener twilled or "momied." Forty years ago, when chintzes went out of 
fashion an enterprising Philadelphia manufacturer saw the beauty which 
might lie in printing the white cretonne with delicate patterns and finish- 
ing it with a glaze, and forthwith placed his inspiration upon the market. 
The fabric came into immediate and permanent popularity. It is used 
for many household purposes, chiefly however for curtains, chair and sofa 
coverings. [See Chintz.] 

Crewel. [From German clew, a ball of thread]. A kind of fine 
worsted yarn, used in embroidery and fancy work. 

Cricket Flannel. See Flannel. 

Crinoline. [Fr. crinoline, hair cloth, from Latin crinis, hair and linum, 
linen]. When first invented crinoline was woven of horse hair and linen, 
but is now altogether woven of cotton, and used as a cheap material for 
stiffening ladies' dresses, linings and the like, after the manner of buckram. 
The original material made of horse hair and linen, began to be used about 
1852 in the manufacture of ladies' stiff skirts or "crinolines;" and when this 
fashion was followed by that of wearing greatly projecting skirts of wire 
springs, the word "crinoline" continued to be used to designate the latter 
article. The first crinoline-skirt for expanding the dress was invented by 
Empress Eugenia of France, just before the birth of the Prince Imperial, 
and the fashion was adopted by Her Royal Highness Queen Victoria when 
Princess Beatrice was expected. [See Hoopskirt, Farthingale, Hair 
Cloth.] 

Crofting. The process of bleaching linen by exposure to the air on 
grass. This method in Ireland and Scotland is yet in use for the full and 
soft bleaching of certain fine grades of linen fabrics. It necessitates the 
possession of very extensive grass parks in connection with works, and 
renders the process both tedious and subject to the influences of the 
weather. By far the larger part of linen is bleached by the use of 
chemicals, principally chlorine. [See Bleaching, Linen.] 

Crown Lining. Fine crinoline or stiff tarlatan, used by milliners for 
lining the crowns of ladies' bonnets. 

Curtains. See Holland, Lace Curtains. 

Cut Cashmere. A variety of twilled, double fold dress goods, dis- 
tinguished by the presence of fine sunken lines traversing the length of 
the web, producing an appearance of " dropped threads " or incisions. 
Also known as Sebastopol, and woven all-wool, and with a cotton warp. 



104 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DAM 



D 

Damask. A textile fabric woven in elaborate patterns, of various 
designs, as flowers, leaves, foliage, etc., woven in the loom. So called not 
because of having been originally woven at Damascus (as is so often stated) 
but on account of the perfection at one time attained by the Damascene 
weavers. China, no doubt, was the first country to ornament its silken 
webs with a pattern. India, Persia and Syria followed, but at long intervals 
between, in China's footsteps. Fabrics richly figured brought with them 
to Europe the name of "diaspron" or diaper, bestowed upon them at Con- 
stantinople. But about the 12th century the city of Damascus, even then 
long celebrated for its looms, so far ourstripped all other places for beauty 
of design that her silken textiles were in demand everywhere, and Dam- 
ascus cloth became synonymous with excellence and splendor of weaving; 
and thus as often happens, traders fastened the name of Damascene or 
Damask upon every silken fabric richly wrought and curiously designed, 
no matter whether it came or not from Damascus. At present the term 
signifies either of two entirely different materials: (1) Curtain Damask, 
which is made of silk and wool or silk and cotton, in large vari-colored 
patterns woven up in the loom, used chiefly for curtains, portieres and 
furniture covering; and (2) Table Damask, which is a fine twilled linen 
fabric, used solely for table linen (which see). It is, with a few exceptions, 
ornamented with a pattern that is shown by the opposite reflections of 
light from its surface, without contrast of color. This effect is produced 
by the satin principle of twill weaving. [See Satin]. While damask is not 
a perfect type of the satin principle of weaving, yet it comes as near to it 
as is possible consistent with the fact that both sides of damask must be 
equally perfect, and not one side only. An examination of a damask cloth 
either in linen or worsted will convince even the merest tyro of this, and 
more especially when compared with satins, which are not figured after 
the style of damasks. Instead of there being a fine, unbroken surface, 
presenting only one set of threads to the eye, either in the ground or the 
figure, and all the points of interweaving of the wrap with the weft being 
hid, the weft will be seen coming through to the warp surface (which can 
not be discerned in satin). The thicker the threads employed the more 
apparent will this be and the finer the threads the less will this be visible. 
The reason is not hard to find. Where threads are thick the point of inter- 
weaving is more difficult to cover, by reason of their bulk; hence, fine- 
threaded damask always presents a more perfect appearance than thick- 
threaded ones, although the diameters of the threads in both bear exactly 



DAM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 105 

the same ratio to the number in a given space. In respect to fineness of 
fabric and beauty of designs the French linen Damask long bore pre- 
eminence, but latterly has been surpassed by that of Silesia and Saxony, 
and still later by that of Ireland. The fine double damask of Irish manu- 
facture has of late reached a higher excellence in point of weaving and 
bleaching than it ever before attained, and the finest qualities now pro- 
duced at Belfast are not equaled by the choicest products of Saxony. 
Considerable quantities of damask are made in Scotland, particularly at 
Dunfermline, Lisburn, and at Ardoyne, near Belfast. Dutch and Italian 
damask are also imported by this country. The designs for damasks are 
first drawn by artists, and any pattern can be executed such as initials, 
crests, names, etc., with the admirable machinery now in use. Double 
damask is an 8-leaf twill, and single damask is a 4-leaf twill; that is, in 
which the pattern is formed by the warp passing over 8 and 4 wefts re- 
spectively and then under one weft and over 8 or 4 more respectively and 
under one again, and so on. In double damask the pattern always appears 
with more distinctness than in single. Turkey red damask is a cotton 
fabric, used for table covers. The "Renfrew" brand is one among the few 
fast colors of this material. 

Damasked. Fabrics ornamented on the surface with flowers or other 
patterns having a running figure, produced by weaving and not by print- 
ing or stamping. The word " damasked " when applied to linen textures 
or to mixed materials when used for upholstery purposes, has much the 
same meaning as "brocaded " when applied to silk and wool textures. 

Damasse (da-ma-sa'). Woven with a rich pattern, as of flowers or 
large running figures: said of certain silks for ladies' wear. 

Daniassin (dam'-a-sin). A kind of damask with gold and silver 
flowers woven in the warp and woof; an ornamental fabric of which the sur- 
face is wholly or almost wholly gold and silver, used in the decorative arts. 
The material is subjected to heavy pressure to make the surface uniform 
and brilliantly metallic. 

Darning 1 Needles. A long needle with a large eye, used for darning with 
yarn or heavy cotton; sold at wholesale by the thousand, the sizes varying 
from 12 coarse to 18 fine, with usually a rise in price of 10 cents per size; 
double long darners are sized and 00. [See Needles.] 

De Beige (de-bazh'). See Beige. 

Delaine (de-lane'). [French mousseline de laine, muslin of wool]. 
An expressive title which signifies fully what manner of fabric they 
properly should be. Delaine was originally a plain woven, muslin-like 
dress fabric, made of fine "woolen" yarn, but afterward degenerated into 
cotton or mixed materials, and frequently printed. The old-fashioned, 
soft, plain-woven wool delaine is easily recognized at present under the 
name of challi. The endurance of these fabrics is especially commend- 



106 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DEM 

able ; they do not wrinkle easily, and when made up and properly draped 
possess an essentially feminine and dainty look. 

Demi-Castor. An inferior quality of beaver fur ; hence, a hat made 
of beaver of this quality. 

Denim. [A trade name; origin unknown]. A coarse cotton twilled 
material used for men's overalls and working shirts; the quality is denoted 
by the weight in ounces per square yard, ranging from 6-oz (light) to 12-oz 
(heaviest). This fabric has since 1889 been utilized to a small extent for 
curtains and portieres, and the denim which is so familiar with the trade in 
the peculiar grayish blue, is now made for drapery purposes in browns, 
golds, olives, reds and all of the various shades likely to please the best 
elements of the trade. The goods are 50 inches wide, and embroidered in 
the same character of cord work that is seen in tambour lace curtains. 
[See Tambour]. 

Designing. A figure or representation of some character must be 
originated and drawn suited to every class of cloth that is woven. This is 
called designing. The artist first sketches the design for a fabric on plain 
paper, then transfers it to finely-ruled paper, painted in the exact colors 
that are to appear in the cloth, having due regard for economy in weaving. 
Designing silks and fine woolen goods is something that employs and pays 
well for much of the best artistic talent in France and England. A pattern 
that " takes," means fortune to the mill that makes it. Nearly every mill 
has its own pattern makers, and guards jealously the fruits of their labors. 
A pattern cannot be protected by letters patent, and in consequence of this 
a custom has sprung up throughout the trade of copying or adopting the 
patterns of competitors in the production of fabrics. This appropriation 
of designs of other mills is universally followed, so that it is about as fair 
for one as for another, so far as taking an advantage is concerned. Foreign 
manufacturers have complained for several years past that they have no 
protection against the American manufacturer who, as soon as the new 
goods are placed on the market, proceeds at once to bring out the same 
identical patterns in a much inferior cloth. This, when placed alongside of 
the imported fabric, appears to all intents and purpose fully as handsome 
and elegant, and is quickly taken up by the lower classes, who always de- 
sire to appear as well dressed as their more fortunate sisters. The result 
is that their expensively originated fabric is practically killed, for as soon 
as the fabric becomes common, so to speak, the best trade will not use it 
any longer, and this cause is responsible for the heavy losses which are 
frequently sustained by importers in closing out the season's novelties. 
There are several agencies in Paris and other leading trade and fashion 
centres of Europe which make a business of supplying samples of foreign 
manufacturers' new styles to the manufacturing trade of this country, some 
charging a certain figure per 100 samples, while others have a subscription 
price per year, they agreeing to furnish samples of everything new as fast 



DES COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 107 

as placed on the market. The majority of our mills producing dress goods, 
silks, wash fabrics, etc., subscribe to the agencies referred to, and from the 
samples received are able to secure many novel effects and unique designs, 
and there is no denying the fact that the same are of great assistance to 
our home manufacturers. They, however, when bringing out their dupli- 
cated productions of these same samples, are very chary about showing 
them openly until the season's output has been well placed, as with compe- 
tition so strong as at the present time should a rival mill discover any 
special pattern was going well, the chances would be that a reproduction 
of it would appear, perhaps in a cheaper cloth, practically killing the sale 
of the finer article. Among the weavers of Lyons, St. Etienne and other 
great weaving centres of France, much attention is devoted to anything in 
any way connected with the beautiful, either in the figure or the color of 
textiles. Weavers may be seen in their holiday leisure gathering flowers 
and grouping them in the most engaging combinations. They are con- 
stantly suggesting new and tasteful designs to their employers, and are 
thus the fruitful source of elegant patterns. Hence the French flower pat- 
terns are remarkably free from incongruities, being copied from nature with 
scientific precision. This constitutes one of the chief secrets of French 
manufacturing prosperity, for so long as Fashion worships at the shrine of 
beauty, enough people will be found to purchase the fabrics of France, 
even though France should be prohibited from purchasing those of other 
countries. Fashion is to France what the mines of Peru were to Spain, what 
the wheat fields of India are to England, what the cotton industry is to the 
South. In both France and England under the fostering care of their re- 
spective governments have been planted many schools of design, where 
boys and girls are taught the art of originating and drawing beautiful pat- 
terns for the textile manufacturers. For hundreds of years England, es- 
pecially, has encouraged and assisted her people to become more proficient 
in the art of designing, hence it is small wonder that she has such a tre- 
mendous power in the commercial world; for an elegant pattern will always 
induce the sale of a fabric with less difficulty than superior quality. No 
other people make such intelligent, well-directed, persistent and long con- 
tinued efforts in this direction as they. While we Americans pile up the 
tariff mountain high in a vain endeavor to bolster up our manufacturing 
interests, the English educate their artists to make a beautiful pattern, and 
the result is that the goods possessing the most elegant designs invariably 
have the preference. There are probably more technical schools devoted 
to textile interests in England, than in all the rest of the world put together. 
The time has come in the history of textile manufacture in the United 
States, when " we must educate or perish." 

Diagonal. A term introduced in the United States in the year 1875 
denoting a variety of worsteds used in the manufacture of men's fine cloth- 
ing, especially for coats and vests ; it is twilled in such a manner that the 
diagonal ridges are somewhat prominent and noticable. The Supreme 



108 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DIA 

Court of the United States has decided that an importation of cloths known 
as "diagonals" was, under the law as it existed before the passage of the 
Worsted Law, dutiable at 24c. per pound and 35 per cent, advalorem, as 
"manufactures of worsted not otherwise provided for," and not at 35c. 
per pound and 35 per cent, as "manfuactures of wool". These goods are 
known to the trade as "worsteds", therefore they are held to be dutiable 
under the paragraph relating to "worsteds" regardless of the fact that 
they are wholly the product of wool. 

Diaper. In this term we have an example of a fabric possessed of 
a proud ancestry, in its time second to none in the family of splendid 
fabrics, degenerated to the most insignificant and ignoble purpose that 
is possible for a fabric to be used — a body-clout for the mewling infant. 
Diaper was originally a silken fabric, held everywhere in high estima- 
tion for wellnigh a thousand years. We know this from documents be- 
ginning with the 10th century. The origin of the name, however, is un- 
certain. Possibly, in order to indicate a one-colored yet patterned silk 
which diaper then was, the Greeks of the early middle ages invented the 
term diaspron, "I separate" to signify "what distinguishes or separates 
itself from things about it," as every pattern does in a one-colored silk. 
With this textile the Latins took the name for it from the Greeks, and 
called it "diasper," which in English has been softened into "diaper." By 
degrees the word "diaper" became greatly widened in its meaning. When 
"samit," having long been the epithet betokening all that was rich and 
good in silk, was forgotton, diaper from being the very word significant of 
pattern, became a term descriptive of merely a part of an elaborate de- 
sign. Not only all sorts of textiles, whether of silk, or linen, or of worsted, 
but the walls of a room were said to be diapered when the self-same orna- 
ment was repeated and sprinkled well over it. At present in the manu- 
facture of cotton and linen white goods the term is applied to those which 
have small patterns of geometrical regularity, such as diamonds, arrow- 
heads, birds'-eyes, etc., woven in their texture. 

Diced. A term descriptive of a pattern woven in cubes or squares — 
that is, with the sides of the cubes or squares shaded by the run of the 
thread; less properly, a weave of squares or lozenges touching one another, 
without a ground. 

Dickey. A separate shirt-front worn over the breast in place of a 
shirt, or to hide a shirt not fit to be seen. These were at one time called 
shams, and by economical persons were worn over plain shirts during the 
first half of this century. 

Dimity (dim-'i-ty). [Supposed by early authorities to have been 
derived from Damietta, Egypt, where the fabric was once manufactured of 
fine linen. This is now known to be erroneous. The term is from the 
Greek word dimita, meaning two threads. The Greeks coined many names 
for their fabrics from the different combinations of the threads, as "amita," 



DIS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 109 

"dimita," "trimita," "exhimita," etc.] A variety of white goods distingu- 
ished by raised threads or cords extending the length of the fabric. It is 
sometimes printed with various figures, but oftener finished plain white. 

Discharging. A method employed in calico and silk printing for the 
purpose of imprinting a pattern upon a ground of solid color. If, for ex- 
ample, a piece of calico cloth previously dyed a solid color be marked over 
with blocks covered with a paste containing tartaric acid wherever the 
latter touches the cloth, its color will be removed or "discharged," thus 
producing white spots. Numerous modifications of this principle with 
other discharging agents, and various coloring matters, are of frequent use 
for producing colored patterns on solid grounds. In the process most 
practiced the goods are either padded all over or on one side only, with 
mordant and dried, and afterward the pattern printed on the portions dis- 
charged. [See Calico, Bandanna, Mordant]. 

Discount. A part deducted from the count; hence in trade an allow- 
ance or deduction, generally of so much per cent., made for prepayment 
or prompt payment of a bill. 

Distaff. The "staff" or stick which holds the carded material in hand 
spinning. Generally it was a stick about 3 feet long with a forked top, on 
which was wound a quantity of wool or flax to be spun. The lower end of 
the distaff was held between the left arm and the side, and the thread, 
passing through and gaged by the fingers of the left hand, was drawn out 
and twisted by those of the right, and wound on a suspended spindle made 
so as to be revolved like a top, which completed the twisting. In Asiatic 
countries and in some districts of Europe, especially Italy, the primitive 
distaff and spindle are still used; but after the introduction of the spin- 
ning-wheel into Europe, about the 15th century, the distaff became an at- 
tachment only of that designed for flax, and thus continued in general use 
till a recent period. 

" The loaded distaff in the left hand placed, 

With spongy coils of snow-white wool was graced; 
From these the right hand lengthening fibres drew, 

Which into thread 'neath nimble fingers grew." 

The "distaff" side, or "distaff side of the house," was formerly an old 
collective phrase for the female members of a family, as the distaff was 
always used by the women, and was common among all ranks; used es- 
pecially with reference to relationship and descent, and opposed to the 
"spear side" which on account of the men alone using this weapon signi- 
fied the male portion of the family; as, he is connected with the family on 
the distaff side; or, he traces his descent through the spear side of the 
house. [See Spinning Wheel, Home Weaving.] 

Ditto. [From Italian ditto, meaning that which has been said, Latin 
dictum, said.] A duplicate. The same thing. Abbreviated do, and is also 
expressed by two inverted commas (" ), sometimes by the dash (-), and 



110 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DOB 

sometimes, especially in writing, by two minute-marks ( " ). A ditto-suit 
is a suit of clothes of the same color or material throughout. 

Dobby-Machine. A loom built purposely for weaving fancy patterns, 
constructed on a principle similar to the Jacquard loom. [See Jacquard.] 

Doeskin. [So called from the fancied resemblance of the fabric to the 
skin of a doe, on account of its softness and pliability]. A compact, 
twilled "woolen" cloth, finished partially felted, with a smooth surface. 
Doeskin has been extensively used for men's fine pantaloons. The French 
excel all other nations in the manufacture of this fabric, their product 
being far superior in make, finish, and coloring to the American doeskins. 
[See Weaving, Wool, Felting, Teasling, Singeing]. 

Dog* Cheap. [Early English dogge cheape and dog chepe, from dog, as 
a type of worthlessness]. Very cheap; in little estimation. 

Dogskin. A term applied for the purpose of deception to a variety of 
sheepskin leather. It is somewhat thicker than the leather of which kid 
gloves are made, and is used for gloves for men's wear, driving gloves, etc. 
[See Gloves]. 

Dolly Varden. [From Dolly Varden, a character in Dickens' 
"Barnaby Rudge."] A gay-flowered calico worn from 1865 to 1875. 

Dolman. [From Turkish dalama, a long robe open in front, worn by 
the Turks over their outer garments]. A style of ladies' winter wrap, 
characterized by a hanging piece over the arm instead of a sleeve, of vari- 
ous lengths, from very short to almost reaching the ground. 

Domet. A soft, loosely woven material similar in construction to flan- 
nel, napped slightly upon either side. Domet shirting is of the same or- 
ganization, woven in checks, stripes and plaids, termed indiscriminately 
teasle cloth, tennis cloth or outing cloth, the latter name being patented. 
Domet was formally an English fabric, of cotton warp ahd woolen weft, 
generally employed for shrouds, and sometimes by dressmakers in the 
place of wadding. The present fabric owes its popularity to the intro- 
duction of the negligee shirt, in 1888, and forms a. curious instance of a pop- 
ular craze for an intrinsically worthless fabric. Their low price and the 
pleasing effects of color, rendered soft and delicate by the napped surface, 
make them attractive to the masses. It is stated that during the season of 
1890 there were manufactured by mills in the United States over 100,000 
miles of the fabrics known under the general head of domet. [See Flan- 
nelette. 

Donsky. [Russian Donskoi, of the river Don]. A variety of Russian 
wool of coarse quality introduced into English and American woolen man- 
ufacture about 1840. 

Dornick. A term now used for stout linen cloth, especially 
checkered table linen or damask having a simple diaper pattern; 
supposed to have derived its name from the pattern resembling 



DOU COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. Ill 

the dornick, which is a small pebble or cobble-stone. Since 1552 
the word has been spelled many ways, dornix, darnex, dornex, darnec 
darness, and many other varieties of arbitrary orthography. According to 
some writers the term is said to have been derived from the town of Dor- 
neck, in Scotland, where there was a large weaving industry established 
early in the 18th century. 

Double-dyeing. A method of dyeing mixed woolen and cotton goods, 
by which the wool is first dyed with a color which has no affinity with cot- 
ton, after which the cotton is dyed with some color having no affinity for 
wool. 

Double-faced. Cloth having both surfaces finished, so that either may 
be used as the right side. 

Doublet. An outer body-garment such as was worn by men from 
about the end of the fifteenth century until the middle of the seventeenth 
century. Originally it was characterized by short skirts, and was girded 
round the body with a belt. Later it was cut and adjusted with great care, 
and even stuffed or bombasted into an exact shape. At this period it occa- 
sionally had short skirts, but was more often made without them. Through- 
out the sixteenth century the doublet usually had sleeves; under the reign 
of Charles I of England it became universally an undergarment, being 
made without sleeves and worn under the coat, and was thus the immediate 
ancestor of the modern vest. . 

Dowlas (dow ' las). Like^he names of many other cloths, dowlas is from 
a town-name, said to be from Doullens, a town in the department of Somme, 
France. Until the introduction of machine-woven cotton cloth, dowlas was 
a strong and coarse linen fabric, used for purposes not requiring fine linen, 
principally common shirting, ladies' skirts and chemises; it was a species 
of what was known at that time as holland (which see). The name is still 
perpetuated in a strong calico made in imitation of the linen fabric. 

Down. The fine, soft covering of fowls under the feathers, particu- 
larly that of swans, ducks, geese, and other water-fowls. Down-feathers 
are characterized by a downy structure throughout. They more or less 
completely cover the body of the fowl, but are always hidden beneath the 
contour feathers, and serve as a sort of padding about the bases of the lat- 
ter. The eider duck yields most of the down of commerce. [See Eider- 
down.] 

Doyley. [Also spelled doi' -ley. Said to be so called from the name 
of its first maker, Sir Jno. D'Oyley.] A fringed napkin, made of linen or 
cotton, white or colored. [See Table Linen, Damask, Linen.] 

Drap de Alma (drap-de a'l-ma.) A fine close, flat-twilled dress 
fabric of wool, or silk and wool, finished on but one side; somewhat 
heavier than cashmere. The twill weave of Drap de Alma is very similar 
to Satin Royal, and only different from a Satin Rhadame twill in the dia- 
gonal lines being closer together. 



112 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DRA 

Drap de Te (drah-de-ta'). A species of worsted dress goods, woven 
in fine longitudinal cords, sometimes dyed in shades of brown and drab, 
but usually black; also used for men's summer coats and vests. 

Draper. Drap is a French word meaning cloth, and "draper" in Eng- 
land, and "drapier" in France are the terms used in those countries to 
designate a dealer in cloth or clothing, dry goods or textile fabrics of any 
description; as, a linen-draper, a viooXen-draper; being synonymous with 
merchant, or dry goods merchant in the United States. The "Drapers 
Company" of London, is a very important and influential body of mer- 
chants, having been incorporated since 1364, and at the present time own- 
ing two large biyldings, called Halls, where they hold regular meetings 
twice a month. The company is a combination board of trade and benevo- 
lent association, and their objects seem to be to secure special city legis- 
lation favorable to their business, and to assist unfortunate members who 
are worthy. Some of the company's rules are interesting. Apprentices 
are received as members by paying a certain initiation fee, after which the 
Company becomes responsible to an employer for their good behavior. If 
these apprentices become wayward and require correcting, they receive a 
flogging by two tall men disguised in canvas frocks, two penny worth of 
birch rods being expended on the moral improvement of each delinquent. 

Drapery. The occupation of a draper; the trade of making or of 
selling cloth. Cloth or textile fabrics of any description. Specifically 
such variety of cloths as are used for upholstery, curtains, etc. Cotton 
Drapery is heavy cotton flannel napped alike upon both sides and dyed in 
solid colors or printed. 

Drap Sanglier (drap san'-glier.) A loosely-made, all-wool French 
dress fabric, 44 inches wide. It is of rather coarse grain, plainly woven, 
and has a good deal of nap or roughness on the face. It is more especially 
designed for purposes of mourning. 

Drawing-frame. A machine in which the slivers of cotton, wool, etc., 
from the carding-engine are attenuated or drawn out by passing through 
consecutive pairs of rollers, each pair revolving at a higher rate of speed 
than its predecessor. [See Carding, Spinning.] In spun-silk manufac- 
ture, a machine in which the fibers of the floss or refuse silk are laid in a 
parallel position preparatory to being cut into short lengths by the cutting- 
engine, to be afterward worked like raw cotton. 

Drawn-work. A kind of ornamental work done in tidies, towels, etc., 
by cutting out, pulling out, or drawing to one side some of the threads of 
the fabric while leaving others, or by drawing all into a new form, pro- 
ducing fancy patterns in the cloth. This work was the original form of 
lace, the addition to it of needlework producing the first and simplest 
varieties of lace. The early name for this was cut-work. 

Dress. A garment or the assemblage of garments used as a covering 



DRE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 113 

for the body or for its adornment; clothes; apparel; skill in selecting, com- 
bining, and adjusting articles of clothing. Dress is only one of the count- 
less forms of fashion. Its super-importance is evidenced at every turn, 
whether dictating the arrangements of the christening, the marriage, or the 
funeral. The standard of good dressing varies much in different parts of 
the world. The king of Tahiti thinks himself well dressed in a belt and 
necklace, or possibly a wrap of cloth or a coat, regardless of his nether 
extremities, while his queen struts in countless strings of gaudy beads, 
enveloped in dirty wraps wound in disorder about her body. The fashion- 
able heathen miss of the Fiji islands is satisfied with a fringe of colored 
grass about the loins, while her sister, the Christian belle, cares nought but 
for a cloth reaching from the waist to the knee, decorated with delicate 
creeping ferns or bright golden croton leaves, cunningly fastened so as to 
overlap each other and form a short petticoat. The Indians of both sexes 
are contented with the ornamented furs and skins of wild animals, supple- 
mented occasionally with a crimson blanket of wool. The Roman matron 
considered herself gorgeously arrayed in her purple tunic of silk, while her 
noble husband held a similar opinion enveloped in the flowing folds of his 
toga. The East Indian woman winds herself up in her chudder, as the 
Scotch shepherd does in his shawl, each happy in the thought that their 
form of dress is the best. Among all nations and all peoples the objects 
and origin of dress are the same — comfort and adornment. 

Among civilized peoples the primary object of dress is, of course, to 
protect the body from extremes of climate. But another object is to beau- 
tify, or perhaps to emphasize beauty is a happier way to express it. The 
problem of good dressing, which is so seldom solved, is to discover a per- 
son's two or three fine points, bring these into relief and conceal the many 
deficiencies. Happy is that woman who, acknowledging her deficiencies, 
constructs her dress to emphasize her finest points. She will make the 
most profound impression, and unconsciously and unintentionally become 
the merchant's best advertising medium. 

The first thing to be considered by a woman of taste in selecting a 
dress, is the general effect as a whole, and this can only be secured prop- 
erly by the study of the form, height, breadth, length of waist, carriage of 
the head, gait and general deportment. After this follow color, line, mass, 
trimmings, ornaments, etc. Many women dress as if the face was the only 
consideration, yet we see the face once where we see the whole person 
twenty times, as across a room or the street. Again, some dress as if they 
were a half-length portrait, not considering what is below the waist. A 
short woman too often thinks she looks taller for wearing a very long 
waist. So she does in her short mirror, forgetting that what she adds above 
she cuts off below, and were she to look into a long glass, she would see 
that by apparently shortening her limbs she loses far more height than she 
gains by lengthening her waist. The shorter the woman, the shorter should 
be her waist. 



114 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DRE 

It does not take an artist to see that the natural form is beautiful, with 
its graceful curves, its perfect proportions and its flexibility of motion. It 
is always a mistake or a blind and willful disregard of the laws of nature, 
when a woman dresses in defiance of the laws of beauty. The loose, soft 
waist which the "dress reformers" urge, is no less hideous than the French 
corset which ruins the figure. It does not serve its ends, as it conceals all 
the beautifully rounded curves which should be emphasized. The present 
close-fitting dresses, defining the graceful lines of the hips and falling in 
slightly below the knees, are strictly in accordance with the natural lines 
of the body, and are far from ugly on a well proportioned figure. Dress 
should not alter the natural shape, nor the general effect of the physique; 
it must only seize upon the prominent beauties of figure, complexion, car- 
riage, style, and by dexterously making the dress harmonize with these an 
effect is produced which is marvelous. But this is one of those subtle 
truths which requires a delicacy of comprehension possessed but by few. 
It is probable that Charles Frederick Worth, the man-milliner of Paris, has 
this faculty developed to a greater degree than any other person living. 
Worth was born in 1834, and is consequently now but little past middle 
age. He is a stout, genial, pleasant-looking gentleman, with a peculiarly 
low-toned voice and very quiet manner. He is not only the head of that 
vast establishment in Paris, but its soul and brain as well. He creates the 
pattern dresses, orders materials and trimmings to be manufactured from 
his own designs, and superintends in person all the delicate finishing 
details of a toilette, such as shaping and trimming of a corsage, the tying 
of scarfs or of ribbons, to the placing of artificial flowers on the skirt. He 
excels in combining colors, sweeping aside piece after piece of silk till the 
exact union of hues that is at once the most effective and most artistic has 
been reached. 

In selecting a dress pattern the buyer should first consider height and 
rotundity of the figure, how it may be apparently increased or lessened by 
judicious arrangements of drapery. A general rule may be given to this 
effect: Division lessens the appearance of size either in width or height. 
The repetition of upright lines gives the effect of added height, because it 
divides the rotundity. The repetition of horizontal lines gives the appear- 
ance of greater rotundity, because it divides the height. In the art of dress, 
fulness produces an esthetic effect which tends to give size, but it must not 
change the natural shape; it must simply increase it apparently in the size 
of the. dimension either way. Thus the line is of great importance in ar- 
ranging a dress. Long lines from the shoulder to the foot, in the arrange- 
ment of draperies, will have the effect of making a short, stout woman 
appear taller, and thinner, while vice versa lines extending around the 
figure will increase the rotundity. As an illustration: if stout ladies 
would only be content to give themselves the advantage of their roundness, 
and not, by lacing, attempt to disguise themselves as slender women (a 
most apparent subterfuge) they might pass for artistically dressed persons. 



DRI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 115 

The beautiful arms and hands and neck, which always accompany stout- 
ness, being the finest points, should be advantageously displayed by wear- 
ing close-fitting garments, but with the long lines of grace prevailing from 
the shoulder to the foot. 

Drilling. [German drillich (from drei, three), a 3-cord fabric] A 
twilled material of either linen or cotton, very stout and used for waist lin- 
ings, underwear, summer trowsers, pockets, etc.; found in all colors; also 
called drill and drills. 

Drugget. [From French droguet, trash]. A large square rug or mat, 
felted or woven, either of one color or printed on one side, and used as a 
protection for a carpet, covering only the middle portion of the floor. A 
finer fabric of the same sort is used for table and piano covers. The char- 
acter of this article has wonderfully changed as compared with that which 
once bore the title. In 1739 druggets are described as "plain and corded," 
and enumerated among other stuffs of combing and carding-wool. Silk 
druggets are mentioned among stuffs of mixed material, as long wool and 
silk, or mohair and cotton. Chambers, in his Cyclopedia of 1741, gives a 
description of them which leaves no doubt that some druggets were far 
from trashy: 

Drugget, in commerce, a sort of staff, very thin and narrow, nsnally all wool and 
sometimes half wool and half silk, having sometimes the wale (twill), but more usually 
without, and woven on a hard worsted chain. Those without the wale are wove on a 
loom with two treddles, after the same manner as linen, camblet, etc. M. Savary invented 
a kind of gold and silver drugget, the warp being partly gold and silver thread, and the 
woof linen. 

Twilled drugget was once commonly known in trade as "corded" 

drugget, but when of linen warp and woolen weft as "threaded" drugget, 

and were particularly an English manufacture. Its use as an article of 

clothing, common ever since the fabric has partaken of the character of 

baize, has now entirely ceased, so that we only know it as proper to the 

carpet department. 

Drummer. A commercial traveler who is an agent or representative 
of a manufacturer, importer or other wholesale dealer who procures and 
transmits orders for the goods of his firm in quantity, by personal solicita- 
tion and the exhibition of his samples. He is not a pedler, for he carries 
no goods, makes no direct sales, and does business only with dealers, never 
with consumers. 

Dry Goods. Textile fabrics, and related articles of trade; as, cloth, 
shawls, wraps, ready-made garments, blankets, ribbons, thread, yarn, 
hosiery, millinery, etc., in distinction from hardware, groceries, etc. In this 
sense the term is used almost exclusively in the United States, though not, 
as generally supposed, a term of American origin. The first recorded use 
of the term "dry goods" to describe textile fabrics collectively, occurred in 
a report to the English House of Commons in the year 1745, relating to the 
infamous practice of smuggling, and containing the following passage: 
"From Yarmouth His Majestie's officers give account that on the 22d of 



116 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DRY 

October, one hundred and twelve horses were laden on the beach with 
smuggled dry goods by upwards of ninety men, guarded by ten persons 
with firearms ; and on the 20th of the same month forty horses were loaded 
with dry goods at Hartley by riders well armed." In both England and 
Canada at present "mercery" and "drapery" are the terms used to describe 
dry goods. 

Recent government statistics indicate that in the United States there is 
more money invested in the dry goods business, in its various branches, 
than in any other industry, the total amount slightly exceeding $20,000,- 
000,000. That coming next in point of money invested, is railroads, with $12, 
000,000,000. The extraordinary industrial progress of the United States 
during the past thirty years, or since the Civil War, is the greatest wonder 
of modern civilization. It is a glorious proof of the unlimited power of 
of human exertion, and of the superiority of American genius. Thirty 
years ago the United States had but 30,000,000 souls; in 1890 it had above 
65,000,000. Then we had only 141 cities, with 5,000,000 inhabitants; the last 
census showed 443 cities, with 12,000,000 inhabitants. The woolen industry 
in the year referred to put on the market $80,000,000 worth of goods; in 1890 
these figures were increased to $280,000,000. In 1860 we imported 227,000,- 
000 yards of cotton fabrics; in 1890 only about 25,000,000 yards. Moreover, 
our spinning mills and factories of cotton goods now export annually over 
150,000,000 yards of their products. The silk industry thirty years ago em- 
ployed only 5,000 individuals, to-day it employs 35,000 individuals. The 
products of the silk factories then amounted to $6,0000,00. In 1891 they 
were worth $40,000,000. In 1860 the Union had 22,000,000 theep, thirty 
years after it had 40,000,000, while the wool produced increased from 
40,000,000 pounds, to 260,000,000 pounds. In these thirty years while the 
population has only doubled, the industries have, in most cases, increased 
four-fold, and in a few instances five-fold, while we exported last year three 
times as much as in 1860. The merchant who peruses this retrospect may 
well feel proud of the record of his calling, which is absolutely without 
parallel ' in the world's history. The dry goods element is one of the 
greatest features of our Nation's commercial life, and has undoubtedly 
done the largest share toward developing our national and industrial pros- 
perity. The dry goods store is found in every village and hamlet, and is 
the center of trade and barter in all rural communities. In the larger 
towns and cities the dry goods interest forms one of the most important de- 
partments of business, and greatly helps in sustaining all other branches 
of trade. The consumptive demand for dry goods increases in ratio corre- 
sponding with the increase of population. A business of such magnitude, 
involving so much capital, and so intimately interwoven with the wants of 
our modern civilization, requires the best management possible to make it 
successful. Year by year dry goods stores are growing larger and larger 
with added lines of merchandise, until it is now possible to procure at the 
large department stores almost any article in common use by mankind. 



DRY COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 117 

The two largest department stores in the world are in Paris and London, 
the "Bon Marche," in Paris, and "Whitely's," in London. The story of the 
Bon Marche, owned by Aristide Boucicaut, is one that blends enterprise 
and philanthropy, individual genius and cooperative thrift, man's inven- 
tion and woman's perseverance in a way unmatched elsewhere in history. 
Boucicaut was born in France in 1810. His coming into the world was so 
unimportant that he never knew his birthday. The boy received no edu- 
cation. Barely able to read and write enough to keep rude accounts, 
natural energy made him adopt the humble and not cheerful occupation of 
a peddler. With $25 worth of miscellaneous goods known in France as 
noveautes — novelties we say — he took to the road and patiently plodded 
through hamlet and village until he had made enough money to buy a half 
interest in a small store in Paris called the "Bon Marche" (cheap mar- 
ket). In 1877 the peddler who had laid aside his pack 40 years previous, 
died the absolute head of the Bon Marche dry goods establishment, whose 
capital had became millions, and whose 3,000 employees mourned him as a 
father. He was most happily married. His wife was of his own disposi- 
tion — -frugal, far-sighted, sagacious. She helped all his plans, made their 
home happy and has carried on the immense business since his death. 
Boucicaut, seconded by his wife, opened evening schools for their army of 
clerks. He had clever teachers of various languages, of mathematics, 
drawing, writing, music, dancing, reading, theatricals. The life of the 
miserable "calicoes" of Paris prior to his time was as squalid as it was de- 
spised. He created for that class, pleasure, dignity, reward, opportunities 
never before contemplated as even possible. He founded a home for his 
women and girl employees, and opened a dining-room where both men and 
women are fed at the expense of the store. Later he opened a boarding 
house for the men and boys. There is no charge in the restaurant, open to 
employees only, except for "extras." There are more than 2,500 men and 
women living thus, under a form of socialism, that has proved wholly free 
from danger and rich in blessing. Married employees have their own 
homes apart from the establishment. All others can find lodging and sub- 
sistence under its protection. There is a smoking-room for the men, there 
are hair-dressing rooms,music-rooms,billiard-rooms, a medical staff and dis- 
pensary — all free. At sixty years a pension is provided for men or for 
those at any age who have been with the house twenty years. Women at 
fifty are retirable on pension, or after fifteen years continuous service. 
There is free delivery of goods for fifteen miles outside as well as in the 
city. Goods are always exchanged without question if unsatisfactory for 
any reason. The success of the establishment is due, first, to excellence in 
quality of goods; second, to politeness and intelligence in clerks; third, to 
prudence in spending money on mere show; finally, to affording in each 
stock variety enough in grade and price to suit alike the poorest and 
the richest. * 

Whiteley's great London shop is a strange mingling of commercial 



118 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. DUC 

elements. He does not pretend to be a merchant, but announces himself as 
a "universal provider." When it is investigated what this means, there 
will be found a great store stocked with everything to eat, drink and to 
wear that the human imagination can conceive. He prides himself that no 
customer can send an order to him for anything in the world that he will 
furnish him, even to a wife. The character of wages paid, and the general 
conduct of the business is a marvel, and one of the greatest curiosities of 
commercial life in the world. 

Duck. [From Swed. duk, cloth.] A strong linen fabric, plain-woven, 
without twill, lighter than canvas, and used for small sails, tents, and for 
men's summer clothing; in color usually white or unbleached, but some- 
times dyed in plain colors. Cotton duck is made in imitation of the orig- 
inal linen, and is always distinguished by being woven with a double warp; 
used for men's overalls, tents, awnings, etc. The quality is denoted like 
denim by the weight of the cloth in ounces per square yard. Russia duck 
is a white linen canvas of fine quality. 

Due-bill. A brief written acknowledgment of indebtedness differing 
from a promissory note in not being payable to order or transferable by 
mere indorsement. 

Dundee Goods. A term applied to a large class of coarse fabrics of 
flax, hemp and jute, made in and about Dundee, Scotland, such as crash, 
huckaback, burlaps, baggings, ducks, sail-cloth, coarse sheetings, paddings, 
cot bottoms, etc. 

Dupion (du'pion). A double cocoon formed by two silk worms spin- 
ning together. The coarse silk furnished by such double cocoons. 

Dyeing. The art of coloring fabrics by immersion in a properly pre- 
pared bath. The matters used for dyeing are obtained from vegetables, 
animals and minerals, and the subjects to which they are applied are por- 
ous materials in general, but especially wool, cotton, silk, linen, fur and 
feathers. The great diversity of colors obtained in dyeing is the result of 
the combination of two or more simple coloring substances with one 
another, or with certain chemical re-agents. To render the colors perma- 
nent, the subsequent application of a mordant, or the precipitation of the 
coloring matter by the direct use of a mordant, is usually required; but 
when aniline and some other artificial dyes are used no mordant is neces- 
sary. The superficial application of pigments to fabrics, as in painting or 
as in cheap processes of calico printing, does not constitute dyeing, because 
the dyes so applied do not penetrate the fiber, and are not intimately incor- 
porated with it. The most important dyestuffs are cochineal, madder, 
indigo, logwood, fustic, and the various preparations from aniline. 

That dyeing was practiced in the most ancient times is abundantly 
proven by the frequent mention of dyed colors in the oldest extant writ- 
ings; that it was not a common art seems apparent from the uses to which 
colored garments were devoted, and the high distinction which they con- 



DYE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 119 

ferred upon the wearers. The bright colors, "blue, purple and scarlet," 
mentioned in the book of Exodus, as well as the "Tyrian purple" so often 
referred to by Roman writers, were so costly as not to be available for gen- 
eral and common use. From the perishable nature of textile fabrics and 
their comparatively small intrinsic value, very few ancient examples of the 
dyer's art have been preserved. There is, however, one account of cloth 
containing dyed yarn which may have been in the dyer's hands in Egypt 
1,000 years before the Christian era; and there is still in good preservation 
ecclesiastical garments containing dyed silks which are certainly 600 to 
700 years old. Some of the mummy cloths taken from the Pyramids have 
a border of blue and fawn color made by colored threads introduced in the 
loom. At the Centennial Exposition in 1876 there was in the Peruvian 
Department a piece of woven cloth taken from the tomb of the Incas at 
least 2,000 years old, and in an excellent state of preservation, with the col- 
ors scarcely dimmed through a cycle of many centuries. Stuffs dyed with 
purple were one of the most considerable branches of the commerce of the 
ancients. The purple disputed value with gold itself in those remote times, 
and was the distinguishing mark of the greatest dignities of the universe. 
This sort of dyeing now constitutes one of the lost arts. The earliest 
account of the processes and materials used by dyers is found in a French 
collection of manuscripts written in 1410, and the earliest printed account 
of dyeing processes occurs in an Italian work published in 1510. In this 
work mention is made of woad and methods of making indigo from it; of 
indigo imported from India, called bagadel ; of sumac, gall nuts, and the 
berries of buckthorn, to be used for yellow; and of sandal wood and mad- 
der for red. It is very clear from these works, and from numerous exist- 
ing samples of colored fabrics, that dyeing was well understood in Europe 
in the fifteenth century, and that the materials at the command of the dyer 
were sufficiently numerous and varied to enable him to produce all desired 
shades of color. The discovery of America was soon followed by the intro- 
duction of cochineal. Logwood or campeachy was also an introduction 
from the New World, and greatly enlarged the power of the dyer, though 
from the looseness of the colors it yielded it brought his art into some dis- 
repute, but eventually settled down as the principal ingredient in the com- 
mon black dye. In 1810 quercitron bark was discovered in America and 
introduced for dyeing yellows, which has from its superior richness, and 
less cost, displaced all other materials used for that purpose. Of the nat- 
ural dyes introduced in the present century probably the most important is 
catechu. The discovery of the use of bichromate of potash as a mordant 
for woolen goods belongs to the latter half of this century, and has been of 
the highest benefit to the dyer. . *> 

In the year 1858 commenced the discovery and application of a series 
of artificial coloring matters, which have created a distinct era in the 
history ot dyeing. Up to that date the coloring matters used in dyeing 
were either the spontaneous productions of nature or simple preparations 



120 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. ECR 

of the same. In this year was produced a dyeing material from aniline. 
Other discoveries rapidly followed, and in the course of a few years it may 
be said that a hundred patents were taken out for methods of making arti- 
ficial coloring matters from aniline and its preparations; these alkaloid 
bases, under the transforming hands of chemists, supplied the dyer with 
every shade and hue which could be desired. Imitating more or less 
closely the colors obtained from natural coloring matters, they have no 
similarity of chemical composition, but are in every respect fundamentally 
different from them. In 1870 a German chemist by means of chemical in- 
vestigation succeeded in transforming an extract of aniline into alizarin, 
the latter being identical in chemical composition as well as tinctorial 
properties with the coloring matter of madder, one of the most anciently 
known and most valuable of all natural dye-stuffs. This was the first in- 
stance in which chemistry had produced one of the old and well-known 
colors of the dyer; in a short time after its discovery it was made practi- 
cally available for the trade, and has at this date (1892) almost entirely 
driven from the market the native product — accomplishing a revolution 
which has no parallel in the history of coloring matters. [See Aniline, 
Alizarin, Woad, Mauve, Madder, Logwood, Pigments, Indigo, 
Mordant, Purple, Turkey Red, Cochineal, Colors, Calico 
Printing]. 



E 

Ec'ru (eck'-ru). [French ecru, "raw" or "unbleached" when applied 
to linen, silk or other textile fabrics]. Having the color of unbleached silk 
or linen, hence by extension having any similar shade or neutral color, as 
the color of hemp or hempen cord. 

Edging. Narrow lace or embroidery especially made for trimming 
frills and parts of dress. [See Everlasting.] 

Egyptian Cotton. Cotton raised in Egypt, of a yellowish color and 
superior quality, not as fine and silky as the Sea Island cotton raised in 
the United States, but ranking next to it in price and grade. It is, how- 
ever, somewhat irregular in staple, and prepared for shipment in a bung- 
ling, slovenly manner. No description of cotton loses less in carding, and 
it mixes freely with cotton of a shorter staple. The best and cleanest is 
generally used by manufacturers for spinning a superior quality of yarn 
for hosiery. 

Eider-down. Down or soft feathers of the eider-duck, such as the 
bird plucks from its own breast to line the nest or cover the eggs. The 
commercial down is chiefly obtained from this species of duck, and is used 
in the manufacture of many beautiful fabrics, as coverlets, robes, tippets, 
boas, muffs, etc. The down is one of the very poorest conductors of heat, 
as well as an extremely light substance, thus preserving great warmth 



EID COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 121 

with very little weight, and is by far the most valuable of any down- 
feathers imported. The eider-ducks build their nests in great numbers in 
almost inaccessible rocky situations on the coast of Ireland, Scotland, 
Lapland and Spitzbergen; and these nests are, at great risk of life, annually 
plundered of their down by fowlers. Eider-down comes to this country in 
the form of balls weighing three or four pounds. It is so fine and soft that 
if one of these balls is spread and warmed over hot coals it will expand 
and fill a bed big enough for two persons. Eider-down is only used as a 
covering for beds, and never should be slept upon, as it thereby loses its 
elasticity. The down procured from the nests, being plucked by the duck 
from her own breast, is most valued, and is known as " live down," that 
plucked from the dead bird is much less elastic, and consequently lightly 
esteemed. About half a pound is the quantity usually procured from each 
nest. 

Eiderdown Cloth. A heavy-napped woolen fabric invented in 1882, 
by Mr. Robert Ward, of Philadelphia, and extensively used in the manu- 
facture of children's garments, caps, cloaks and robes. It is also used for 
ladies' sacks, jackets, opera cloaks, dressing gowns, and for counterpanes, 
afghans, mats, and lap robes. Though of delicate texture, it will stand 
wear to a remarkable degree. The especial qualities of lightness, warmth 
and elasticity which the fabric possesses are not due to the material alone, 
but largely to the peculiar construction of the cloth. This will be under- 
stood when it is remarked that Eiderdown is a knit cloth produced by the 
same process as crochet work. By this means at least double the surface 
is secured that is possessed by woven cloth of the same weight. In fact to 
produce a woven cloth with the same weight would cost at least twice as 
much. Eiderdown comes in a great variety of patterns, from plain white 
and the different shades of red, blue, pink, to fancy squares and stripes. 
All plain cloths in the various tints and colors are simply dyed, but stripes, 
squares etc., are embroidered into the fabric by machinery, previous to 
napping. Fancy effects in stripes and checks are produced by a com- 
bination of different colored yarns knitted into the cloth by the same 
machine which constructs the fabric. 

Elastic Web. A material for suspenders, garters, etc., made in bands 
from half an inch to twelve inches in width. The slender rubber slips or 
shirrs as they are technically called, are cut from wide thin sheets of india 
rubber and these lie parallel to the warp in weaving. Ordinary 
silk and cotton elastic are woven plain, or "single," but the heavy grade 
for suspenders is "double-woven," that is, with two sets of warps and two 
sets of wefts, interlaced together so as to form a solid and compact band, 
with the slips of rubber in the center. First manufactured in 1820. 
Bolts of elastic web are put up in 12 yard lengths. Elastic cord comes 
put up in 36 yard lengths. 

Electoral Cloth or Biretz. A double-faced dress fabric woven of wool, 



122 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. ELL 

or silk and wool, with a cashmere twilled face upon one side ,and a round 
close-ribbed or "repped," surface on the other, usually reversible. [See 
Empress Cloth.] 

Ell. A long measure, chiefly used for cloth, of different lengths in 
different countries. The English ell, not yet obsolete, is a yard and a 
quarter, or 45 inches. Ell is identical in meaning and origin with the word 
aune, which is also a cloth measure for one and quarter yards. Both of 
these words are derived from alna, elbow or fore-arm. 

Embossed Yelvet. See Velvet. 

Embossed Felt. An upholstering material; used for table covers, 
borders, friezes, or dados for applique purposes. Ordinary thick felt is 
embossed under pressure of heavy cylinders upon the surfaces of which are 
cut out the patterns. By the action of heat or acid, the color is brought up 
in tones, giving the effect of two printings. 

Embroidery. The art of working with the needle flowers, leaves, 
vines and other forms, upon wool, silk, cotton, or other woven textures. 
That it is of the greatest antiquity is proven by the testimony of Moses and 
Homer. It takes precedence of painting, the earliest method of represent- 
ing figures and ornaments being of needle-work traced upon canvas. In 
olden times embroidering was the chief occupation of women of all ranks, 
from the palace to the cloister, and sharp rivalry existed in the production 
of sacerdotal vestments and ornaments. Nuns embroidered robes adorned 
with sacred subjects; girls produced admirable embroidery in appropriate 
designs for the monasteries; chasubles and mantles were embroidered on 
silk, embellished with gold and gems by the fair hands of queens and 
princesses. From the ninth to the fifteenth century was a glorious period 
for needle-work. Not only were figures and portraits produced, but also 
floral, rococco, and arabesque ornamentation; flowers in the grandiose 
style wrought with arabesques of gold and silver were characteristic de- 
signs of the period. From an industrial point of view, embroideries may be 
ranged into two classes: First that described above, in which Persia, China 
and Japan are the greatest masters in modern times; second, white, or flat- 
stitch embroidery, applied to dress and furniture, upon cloth, cambric, 
swiss, etc., in which Swizerland holds first place and Germany next. East- 
ern Switzerland, with St. Gall as a center, for one hundred years has been 
headquarters of the flat-stitch embroidery industry of the world. Although 
the Swiss embroider at a marvelously low rate, they cannot weave the 
cambric for the foundation. These cloths, cambrics, Swisses, etc., upon 
which the Swiss embroider, are all obtained from England, being for the 
most part manufactured at Manchester. In the year 1890 cotton embroi- 
deries to the value of $18,000,000 were shipped from St. Gall to various 
quarters of the earth. More than $8,000,000 worth of these came to the 
United States. Should these large importations continue, and the tariff on 
embroideries remain at the present high rate of 60 per cent., the customs 



EMB COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 123 

income would amount to nearly $5,000,000 annually. The present hand- 
machine for embroidering was brought into use in 1827. Embroidering by 
hand alone had long been practiced by the Swiss peasants, but it had only 
become an organized industry (home-industry) early in the present century, 
and was confined, as now, almost wholly to the mountainous part of 
eastern Switzerland, that is, in the cantons of Appenzall, Thurgan 
and St. Gall, with St. Gall town as headquarters for shipping. A great in- 
dustry grew. The technical skill and readiness of hand of the Appenzall 
women was marvelous, and gradually the exquisite embroidery made by 
them became famous all over the world. Many thousands of people are 
now engaged wholly in the skilled business. Girls are trained to it from 
early childhood. Prior to 1827 all the beautiful work was done with 
the hand and in the people's homes; but the introduction of the hand- 
machines rapidly changed the whole situation. At present possibly not 5 
per cent, of the embroideries are made exclusively by hand, and these only 
of special articles, fine and expensive. The hand-machine was soon in the 
houses of half the peasants, and factories were founded where many 
machines were collected and worked — but still by hand-power only. The 
character of the work was then, and remains now, excellent, but the pro- 
duction is comparatively slow. The Swiss manufacturers are, as a body, 
wealthy people, but their workmen have not too much of the good things of 
of life. The profits are usually large to the dealers; but the embroiderer 
barely makes a good living., as it is always necessary for him to pay an as- 
sistant, known as the "threader," to help work his machine. This common 
old embroidering hand-machine of 1827, with few improvements, is the one 
that is used today for the millions of fine embroideries that are sold 
to all quarters of the globe. There are about 30,000 of them in use in 
Switzerland, the number of needles averaging about 250 to the machine, 
and the number of stitches not exceeding 2,000 to the needle, daily. As 
embroiderers are paid on the stitch basis only, they have very small earn- 
ings left after paying their threaders and other expenses. At the present 
time 50 cents, sometimes less, is a fair average of the daily earnings of a 
hard-working embroiderer, who must toil all day long with head, hands 
and feet, working his machine. 

A steam embroidering machine that may more than triple the present 
enormous production of hand-machines, and produce embroidery even of 
a better quality than the present, is one of the latest inventions. It is 
called the Arbon. To the many thousands of Swiss people who earn their 
livelihood by hard labor at the hand-machine, this invention is one of vital 
interest. A machine that would increase the number of stitches per day, and 
with less labor, has been the effort of inventors for nearly fifty years. In 
1875 a machine, called the "SchifHi," was invented and worked by steam. 
It produces, however, only simple patterns of inferior quality. The em- 
broideries made by this machine are usually known as "Schiffli goods." 
The Arbon machines, when placed two together, with the single automatic 



124 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. EMB 

pantagraph acting for both, will it is claimed, produce 12,000 to 15,000 
stitches daily. Two hand-machines, worked by two men and two girls, may 
if they are experts, produce 5,500 stitches daily, but even then the Arbon 
machines would nearly triple the production. Hand-machines cost $400; 
Arbons $1,000 to $1,500. At present the hand-embroiderers of Switzerland 
regard the new invention of embroidering by steam power with contempt, 
but this feeling usually exists among skilled laborers with reference to radi- 
cal revolutions in textile industries. The French hand-weavers 100 years 
ago ridiculed the invention of the Jacquard loom; seeing it a reality, their 
next act was to try and burn it up and mob the inventor, because it had 
revolutionized their industry in a night. There is a possibility that the 
Arbon steam-machine may yet do for the embroidery industry what the 
Jacquard loom did for silk weaving. 

In the United States there are in operation about 300 Swiss embroid- 
ering hand-machines. The men working these are all brought over from 
Switzerland. They are employed mostly on silk embroidery, fancy trim- 
mings, embroidering of robes in silk and wool. Most of the work couldbe 
imported, tariff paid, and sold cheaper than the American work on which 
they are employed. But one very strong protection of home industries 
exists which is not found in the statute books. This is protection in the 
supplying of immediate demands by agencies in touch with the marts and 
tastes of this country. 

In the manufacture of wholly hand-wrought goods, Chinese embroi- 
dery is probably the most remarkable that ever came from human fingers. 
Any lady who has ever attempted embroidery understands the difficulty of 
giving a neat appearance to the work on only one side of the article em- 
broidered, but the Chinese embroider both sides, so that by turning the work 
it is impossible to detect a difference or to say which is the neater, and this, 
too, on material so thin that it seems impossible to work with it at all. The 
Japanese, as usual in these things, borrowed the art from China, and at pres- 
ent Japanese taste and skill is universally acknowledged, although China 
was the original exporter of the quaint designs on quaint materials, worked in 
still quainter colors. The number of firms engaged in the embroidery 
trade in China and Japan number about 350, which represents a very large 
number of persons employed in the business. Men obtain an average rate 
of about $6 a month for first-class embroidery, $4 second class, and $3 
third class work. Up to 1886 the trade was comparatively small, and 
orders were seldom received for more than 100 dozen articles of the same 
pattern. Now, however, 2,000 and 3;000 dozens of one pattern is not by 
any means an uncommon demand. 

The Persians used silk for their embroideries at least two thousand 
years ago. Marco Polo in the 14th century wrote of the rare skill of the 
women of Persia, especially in the South, in the needlework of silk. Many 
choice stuffs are still in existence, wrought by them centuries ago, of silk 
and gold and silver thread; and to this day they can be seen still busy with 



EMB COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 125 

the needle, rivaling their sisters of Cashmere on the east, and surpassing 
the women of Turkey on the west. A curious fact connected with Persian 
embroidery is the circumstance that the art is practiced not only by the 
women but also by the men. The latter work chiefly in the bazars, and 
go, if required, to do special work at the houses of Europeans. Perhaps 
the handsomest embroideries of Persia are those called Siliseh, made in 
Kerman, the most southern province, bordering on the Indian Ocean. Both 
in material and workmanship they are but little inferior to those of Cash- 
mere, which they resemble. The needle work is sometimes of silk, but 
generally of woolen thread, which has a very soft, silky appearance. 

Embroidery Silk. The fancy colors are usually put up 10 yards to a 
spool, each spool being equal to four ordinary cards or skeins. All colors 
except black and white are EE in size (equal to No. 300 in knitting silk). 
Black and white are made in four sizes, E, EE, F, FF, from fine to coarse 
in the order named. 

Empress Cloth. [So called on account of the weave having been 
originated for, and worn first by the Empress Eugenia, of France]. A 
variety of dress fabric, medium heavy, with a finely repped or corded sur- 
face, frequently with a cashmere or sateen twill on the opposite side; also 
called Biretz and electoral cloth. 

Empress Gauze. A fine, transparent stuff, made of silk, or silk and 
linen, and having a design, usually of a flower pattern, woven in the mesh. 

Epingle (ep'in-gle). [French epingle, a slender pin wire.] A 
descriptive term for a variety of thin silk, woven with prominent lustrous 
raised cords, as if a fine wire had been inserted in place of the weft to 
make the cords more noticable; though in point of fact hard-twisted 
worsted threads are used for this purpose in the better grades, and cotton 
for the cheaper. The patterns in Epingle silks vary, sometimes there 
being but a single cord at close and regular intervals, and again two or 
three together at uneven distances apart. The cords possess a high polish, 
forming a striking contrast with the lusterless ground. This silk is fre- 
quently used for ribbons and cravats. 

Equestrian Tights. A woman's knit undergarments, consisting of 
drawers and stockings combined, reaching to the waist. [See Pantella.] 

Ermine. A small quadruped inhabiting the northern regions of Eu- 
rope and America. The fur of the animal is snow white, with the tip of 
the tail a jet black. The ermine is a near relative of the weasle, the ferret, 
and the European polecat, all of which belong to the same genus. The 
ermine fur of commerce is chiefly obtained from Northern Europe, Siberia 
and British America, and is in great request. When the fur is prepared 
for ornamental purposes, the black of the tail is inserted at regular inter- 
vals so that it contrasts with the pure white. The fur, with or without the 
black spots, is used for lining and facing certain official and ceremonial 
garments, especially in England the robes of judges, hence by extension, 



126 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. EST 

the term "ermined" has come to signify one who is invested with judicial 
power, or with the office or dignity of a judge. 

Estamene (es'-ta-mene'). An all-wool French dress fabric woven 
similar to serge, but having a rough and nappy surface, and uniformly 
measuring 25 inches in width. In weather suitable for the wearing of serge, 
estamene is a fitting substitute, but at the same time is a superior kind 
of dress material to the former. 

Estamin (es-tam'-in). A woolen stuff made in Prussia, used for 
sack cloth, plush caps, etc. [See Tammy.] 

Etamine (et'-a-mine). A coarse description of woolen bunting or 
canvas, of a more or less transparent texture. It is employed as a dress 
material and is generally intended to be worn over a contrasting color. 
The threads are of a fluffy character, dyed in the prevailing colors and 
shades. It is also made in cotton. [See Tamise.] 

Everlasting. A variety of very durable white cotton edging, distin- 
guished by being made in rows of continuous holes surrounded and separ- 
ated by a light, flat braid or cord. Its width is indicated by the number 
of rows of holes, from one-hole narrow, to 8-hole wide. 

Everlasting. A strong mohair or worsted cloth used for the tops of 
boots and shoes. Better known under the terms lasting and prunella 
(which see). 



F 

Fabric. [From Latin fabricus, a work shop.] A woven or felted cloth 
of any material or style of weaving; anything produced either by weaving 
or interlacing; destinctively called textile fabric; cloth; texture; stuff. 

Factory. A term which originally implied the residence of factors; 
that is, agents or brokers whose duty was to buy or sell goods for merchants 
who resided elsewhere; to see them packed and shipped to the persons for 
whom they were bought. The modern significance of the term is a build- 
ing or group of buildings appropriated solely to the manufacture of goods. 
The factory system has arisen from the rapid growth of the woolen and 
cotton industries, and the consequent subdivision of labor which rendered 
necessary the centralizing of various departments of manufacture. It 
has gradually developed to its present dimensions since the year 1770, 
through the invention of the humble barber of Preston, Richard Arkwright. 
Prior to this invention, silk, wool, linen and cotton yarns were spun by 
hand, a single yarn at a time, but with the invention of Arkwright's spin- 
ning frame, a vast number of threads of any degree of fineness and hard- 
ness can be spun [See Weaving, Spinning]. Instead of hand-spinning 
being performed by single families in isolated communities, the work 
was transferred to the spinning frame where large numbers of hands were 



FAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 127 

employed to operate them under a single roof. Year by year new inven- 
tions and improvements upon old one's have been made, until the present 
day witnesses the ever-increasing tendency to combination and centrali- 
zation of the weaving industry. 

. The tendency of the manufacturing establishments of this country to 
decrease in number and increase in size is strikingly demonstrated in the 
eleventh census bulletin on the woolen industries. From this it appears 
that there were 678 less woolen factories in 1890 than in 1880; and 1,579 less 
than in 1870. The number of factories devoted to the manufacture of 
wool reported in active operation in 1890 was 2,503, against 2,689 in 1880, 
and 3,791 in 1870. On the other hand, the capital invested in the 2,503 
factories in 1890 was $314,309,044, as against $150,091,869 invested in the 
2,689 in operation in 1880. In other words, while the number of mills 
decreased nearly one-fourth during the decade, the capital invested was 
nearly doubled. The increase in the number of hands employed was 
about 60,000; the employees numbering 161,557 in 1880, and 221,032 in 
1890. The amount of wages paid increased from $47,389,087 to $76,741,266; 
the cost of material used from $164,371,551 to $203,095,642, and the value 
of the manufactured product from $267,252,913 to $338,231,109. These 
statistics do not include 271 idle establishments, nor those engaged in the 
manufacturing of shoddy, which amount to no inconsiderable item. These 
figures furnish a striking illustration of the tendency toward large com- 
binations of capital in more extensive factories. The day of the small 
woolen mills, scattered through nearly every county in the country and 
manufacturing the wool clips of the immediate locality, as well as supply- 
ing the manufactured products for local consumption, is past. Whether 
or not the concentration of the woolen industry in fewer and larger fac- 
tories is an unmixed evil, the simple fact is, that the decrease in the num- 
ber of sheep kept by the small farmers east of the Mississippi, and the 
decay of the small woolen manufactories have gone hand in hand, and the 
decrease in the East has not been made good by the number of new 
woolen mills started in the West. 

In the cotton manufacturing industry c'heap coal or abundant water power 
is now no longer, as it once was, the first requirement of the factory owner. 
It is still an important one, but it has become secondary to that of cheap 
transportation. Cotton is cheap, bulky, heavy; fabrics and garments 
made of it are but one-fourth as durable as wool; there are immense 
quantities consumed, hence the freight charges enter more largely into the 
cost of manufactured cotton than is the case of woolens. There are parts 
of New England the water power of which is possibly great enough to 
supply the motive power for all the spindles and looms in the country, and 
yet i«n districts which once were centers of manufacturing industry, of 
large and contented communities of working people, there remain in 
abandoned works and deserted tenements nothing but monuments of a 
former prosperity. The cheap motive power is still there, but the greater 



128 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FAC 

desideratum of cheap transportation is lacking, and because of it poverty 
and ruin prevail in many of the once prosperous districts of New Eng- 
land. The cotton factories, contrary to the facts cited in the case of the 
woolen industry, are slowly and surely moving West and South, following 
the center of population. It is predicted that another generation will see 
the cotton manufactures of this country produced entirely in the Southern 
and Central states, on account of recently developed railroad facilities and 
the nearness to the raw material. The ten years between 1880 and 1890 
witnessed an increase of 10,000 looms in seven Southern states, and it is 
estimated that these seven states produce 34 percent of all brown cotton 
manufactured in America. 

The silk factories are located in the extreme East, and will in all pro- 
bability remain permanent fixtures of the Atlantic coast, unless the time 
should come when the United States shall succeed in raising silk equal in 
quality and quantity to that now produced in Europe and Asia — an ex- 
tremely unpromising conception. [See Silk.] The ocean freight on raw silk 
from Asia is but 6 cents per pound. Compared with cotton the bulk 
annually consumed is insignificant, hence transportation charges enters but a 
small degree into the cost of the manufactured article. 

Factory Cotton. Unbleached cotton muslin, as opposed to bleached 
or imported fabrics; called also "factory" and "domestic." 

Factory Yarn. Coarse 2-ply or 3-ply unscoured woolen yarn, or yarn 
"in the grease." It is usually made by the interior woolen mills, and is 
used by country people for the knitting of heavy winter hose. Frequent 
washings remove the grease, leaving the knitted article clear, soft, and ex- 
tremely warm and durable. It is generally put up in hanks 4-to-the-pound, 
and unlike fancy yarns weighs out full 16 ounces per pound. 

Fagoting (fag ' -ot-ing). In embroidery, an operation in which a num- 
ber of threads in the material are drawn out, and a small bunch of them 
tied in the middle, or "fagoted." This is continued until all the threads in 
the row across the cloth is tied into fagots. The term is also applied to a 
similar effect produced by knitting, and in the manufacture of towels, 
tidies, etc. 

Faille (fail). Originally a hood covering the face, worn by French 
nuns of certain orders. In the 16th century the term was adopted to de- 
scribe a peculiar heavy silk veiling, worn at first by nuns, but later by 
women of all classes. The word has had several different meanings from 
the 13th to the 18th century. At present faille indicates a popular variety 
of soft, ribbed dress silk distinguished by a prominent grain or cord extend- 
ing from side to side of the fabric. The cord is not so heavy as that found 
in ottoman, but about twice as large as that found in grosgrain. It is 
finished without "dressing," possesses a slight gloss, the fabric generally 
appearing better in light than dark colors. 

False Hair, See Hair. 



FAN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 129 

Fans. [From Latin vannus, an apparatus for blowing the chaff from 
grain.] A hand article for cooling the face and person by agitating the air. 
The first fans were composed of feathers, representing the joining of two 
foul wings, an obvious evidence of their Oriental origin, where similar kinds 
are still in use. The feathers of the peacock, ostrich, parrot and pheasant 
were used in their construction, and the handles were frequently formed of 
very costly materials. The present use of the gorgeous peacock fans by 
the attendants of the Pope on ceremonial occasions, is a survival of the 
custom of the slave waving a fan before a priest of Isis, made of feathers 
and painted at the top. The fans that stir the air before the rulers of Asia 
are of the same shape as noted above. The oldest Christian fan trans- 
mitted to us dates from the 6th century, and belonged to Queen Theode- 
linda, the saintly princess who possessed a nail of the holy cross, which 
was hammered and set in the interior of the Iron Crown of the kings of 
Italy. This fan is preserved in the Castle of Monza, near Milan, and is 
shown to the tourist as a relic. It is of leather and is divided into two 
leaves, which, when the fan is not in use, are folded one upon the other. 
The most ancient Egyptian fans known are over 3,500 years old. Its form 
is shown in a bas relief of Nimrod, which represents a slave in the act of 
cooling a liquid contained in a pitcher, with a fan shaped like a palm leaf. 
This is a frequent subject of Egyptian decoration. Whether Catherine de 
Medici obtained the folding fan from the East, or not, is unknown; but at 
any rate it was she who introduced it into France in 1580, and covered it 
with painting and jewels. A little later (1591) one set with diamonds of 
great cost and beauty was presented to Queen Elizabeth of England. 
Possibly the fan came into Spain from Mexico; if it did not, its use was 
greatly increased with the coming of Mexican wealth and dazzle, as the 
Emperor Montezuma had several of gold and the wonderous feather-work 
of his country, beautiful as any painting. But from whatever source it 
came, the Spanish senoretta adopted it at once into the armory of her at- 
tractions, and has wielded it with consumate perfection as an accesory to 
her bright eyes, ever since. In Japan the fan is as universal as a garment, 
constituting as truly as any other article, one of their necessities of life. It 
is at all seasons an inseparable part of Japanese dress. It is his shelter 
from the sun, his protection from the rain, his note-book and his plaything. 
The umpire at wrestling and fencing matches uses a heavy one, shaped 
like a huge butterfly, the handle being the body, and rendered imposing by 
heavy cords of silk. The various motions of the fan constitute a language, 
which the wrestlers fully understand and appreciate. Formerly in times of 
war, the Japanese commander used a large fan formed of a frame of iron 
covered with thick paper. In case of danger it could be shut, and a blow 
from its iron bones was no light affair. The originality of design and 
unique ideas used by the Japanese in making fans is proverbial One 
notahle variety of fan is made of waterproof paper, which can be dipped 
in water, creating great coolness by evaporation without wetting the clothes . 



130 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FAN 

The flat fan made of rough paper is often used as a grain winnow, to blow 
the charcoal fires and as a dust fan. The Japanese gentleman of the old 
school, who never wears a hat, uses a fan to shield his eyes from the sun. 
His head, bare from childhood, hardly needs shade, and when it does he 
spreads an umberella, and with his fan he directs his servants and saves 
talking. The varieties of these fans would form a curious collection in re- 
spect to form as well as quality. Paper enters largely into their composi- 
tion. Bamboo forms a material very handy for the frame-work of the 
cheaper kinds. The paper is either decorated with paintings in all the 
different styles of Japanese art or else brightly colored and sprinkled over 
with silver and gold leaves. Such fans are manufactured in all possible 
qualities and prices, from 50 cents per hundred to 75 cents each. The very 
cheapest folding fan jobbed in the United States is 25 cents per dozen. The 
Japanese fan trade including all the different grades imported amounts to 
about $3,000,000 per anumn. Parchment paper is very extensively used in 
their manufacture, on acconut of holding its shape. In order to make the 
paste adhere well to the bamboo sticks, the dry season of the year is always 
selected for fan work. The most costly fans for general use are made 
of ostrich feathers and pearl sticks. These fans bring $60 apiece, but 
singularly these articles are only used in the winter season. The great de- 
mand for ostrich feathers to trim ladies' costumes has increased the price 
of these goods to such an extent that fans made of ostrich feathers have in 
the past few years about trebled in price. Common ostrich fans formerly 
jobbed in this country for $24 per dozen. It now costs $33 to land them, 
and they job for $48 per dozen. To offset this the French have brought out 
an imitation ostrich fan, which is quite as pretty as the genuine, but can be 
retailed for $1 and $2. 

Farmer's Satin. A variety of lining for men's coats, made with 
cotton chain and a woolen weft, satin wove, and finished with a high 
luster. 

Fashion. A term which admits as little of an exact definition as of 
being referred to as an intelligent principle. The French term it la mode. 
In every age and in every country there has been a recognized costume 
or general style of male and female attire, along with certain niceties 
in the color, shape and texture of dress, which, fluctuating according 
to taste or caprice, are known as Fashion. This whimsicality constantly 
begins and ends in two things it most abhors — singularity and vulgarity. It 
is the perpetual setting up of a certain standard of taste and elegance, 
formed by the prevailing distraction of the moment, and then disowning it; 
which was yesterday ridiculous from its being new, and to-day essentially 
proper, will to-morrow become odious from its being too common. To 
quote the words of the English moralist, Hazlett, "It cannot be lasting, as 
it depends on contrast, change and shifting; it cannot be sterling, for if it 
were, it would not depend on the breath of caprice; it must be superficial 



FAS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 131 

to produce its immediate effect on the gaping crowd; and frivolous to ad- 
mit of its being assumed at pleasure by those who affect it in order to be 
distinguished from the rest of the world. It is not anything in itself nor the 
sign of anything except perhaps the sheer vanity of those people whose very 
existence depends upon what others may think of them. It takes the firmest 
hold of weak, flimsy, and narrow minds; of those whose emptiness conceives 
of nothing excellent except it be regarded in a like manner by others. Fashion 
is the abortive offspring of vain ostentation and exclusive egotism; it is 
haughty, trifling, affected, servile, despotic, mean and ambitious, precise and 
fantastical all in a breath, tied to no rule and bound to conform to every rule 
of the minute." Fashion is the arbitress of weaver and dyer, and the 
terror of wholesale and retail buyers, and yet their main dependence for 
profits. If stamped out of existence in a night, the next morning's sun 
would shine down on a million work-people who depend upon her for a 
livelihood. Fashion, however, throughout all its vagaries, has this one 
principle of humanity in it, that it is almost always designed to help those 
who want help, to cover up deficiencies of nature, to conceal the havoc 
wrought by time of face or form, and to make those look their best to 
whom no special charms have been given. [See Dress, Clothes.] 

Fayetta (fa-yet '-a). A variety of lightweight, double-fold dress silk, 
twill woven, with a twisted silk warp and a weft of fine wool. The side of 
the fabric is "finished" on which the silk predominates, thus resembling 
pure silk goods. The weft is composed of superior wool, and counts 146 
picks to the inch. The fabric measures 42 inches in width, and in many 
respects is similar to gloria silk, possessing the same graceful draping 
qualities. [See Gloria.] 

Featherbone. A substitute for whalebone, made from the quills of 
domestic fowls; patented in 1882. The quills are slit into strips which are 
twisted, the resultant cords being wrapped together with fine threads and 
pressed flat. Featherbone made of enameled quills is largely used in the 
manufacture of buggy whips. It possesses a unique combination of 
qualities, being flexible, tough and fibrous, with the fibres intertwisted and 
at the the same time filamentous, consequently it has wonderful elasticity, 
strength and durability. Water, heat of the sun, or the action of climate do 
not injure it. 

Feather Cloth. A mixture of cloth and feathers woven together, the 
cloth being undyed and produced in drabs and grays; the material usually 
measures one yard and a half in width. It has a very unfinished appear- 
ance, as the feather-ends protrude from the face here and there through- 
out, yet are woven into the web sufficiently well to preclude their falling 
out. The cloth is naturally a warm one, comparatively light, and water- 
proof without being rendered so by artificial means. "Feather Cloth" is 
also the the term applied to a variety of extremely light weight silk-and- 



132 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FEA 

wool material, woven with a basket pattern; so called it is presumed on ac- 
count of its feathery lightness. 

Feathers. [Literally, that which flutters ; German feder, Dutch 
veder.\ Feathers as ornaments were not used by civilized people until the 
close of the 13th century and from that time until the close of the 18th 
century used almost exclusively by men. It is impossible to enumerate 
all the birds whose beautiful plumage supplies the manufacturer with or- 
namental feathers. The feathers of the bird of paradise, the gold and 
silver pheasants, the peacock, the flamingo, the beautiful wing and tail 
feathers of the Argus pheasant, and the wing of the partridge and ptarnu- . 
gan are worn in all children's and ladies' hats, and used more or less in the 
manufacture of fabrics. The feathers of the domestic goose form a staple 
item of commerce. Cock's feathers furnish plumes for the French sol- 
diers; eagles' feathers are worn in the hat and bonnet in Scotland, and a 
plume of them is a mark of distinction among the Indians of North 
America. The wing and side feathers of the turkey supply trimmings for 
articles of ladies' apparel, and are made into victorines, boas and muffs. 
Artificial flowers made of feathers were once much worn by ladies. For 
the decoration of ladies' hats the feathers from the breasts and heads of 
humming birds are at present utilized. To provide these the delicate and 
defenceless humming birds are slain during the mating season, when the 
color of the plumage burns with the most intense splendor. They are 
skinned alive, because it is only by skinning while the body still quivers 
and the blood is hot that the. full vividness of color is preserved for the 
bonnets of womanhood. The feathers of many species of birds are also 
worn as articles of clothing. The skin of the swan, after being properly 
prepared, is used for muffs, linings, and a variety of other articles of dress; 
the skin and feathers of the penguin and eider duck are worn as clothing 
in northern latitudes on account of their beauty and warmth, supplying suit- 
able material for victorines, tippets, boas, cuffs, muffs, and other articles of 
winter attire. The native inhabitants of the Arctic regions, in some parts, 
make themselves coats of bird-skins, which are worn with the feathers in- 
side. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, writes that ere the art of weav- 
ing silk and hemp was understood, mankind used to clothe themselves 
with the skins of beasts and with feathers; and it is very certain that the 
Chinese are now very skillful and ingenious in the art of plumagery, or 
feather-working. They manufacture garlands, chaplets, frontals, tiaras 
and crowns of very thin copper, on which purple and blue feathers are 
placed with much taste and skill. Cortez, the Spanish discoverer, is said 
to have found abundance of curious works in feathers in the palace of 
Montezeuma, the emperor of Mexico, which were so excellent that they are 
described as being "so artificial and neat that they cannot be described in 
writing, or presented to the imagination, except a man sees them," and so 
difficult that no Spaniard could make in silk, wax or needlework anything 



FEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 133 

comparable to them. The best description of what this work was like in 
detail is that of Prescott, who says: "When the Spaniards became masters 
of Mexico they found Montezuma and his nobles arrayed in wonderful 
feather cloaks, almost more splendid than we can imagine. Still less can 
we conceive what a gorgeous spectacle must have been presented when 
such things were worn by a number of people together. Their beautiful 
cloaks had all the effect of a brilliant mosaic. The glittering plumage of 
the tropical birds, especially the parrot tribes, afforded every variety of 
color, and the fine downs of the humming birds, which reveled in swarms 
among the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft aerial 
tints that gave an exquisite finish to the garment. These feathers painted 
on a fine cotton web, were wrought into dresses for the wealthy, into hang- 
ing for apartments and ornaments for the temples." From time immemo- 
rial the plumes from the the back, wings and tail of the ostrich have in all 
civilized countries been used as the crowning ornament of ladies' head 
gear, and at the present time the various sorts of the plumage of this bird 
is used for an almost endless variety of purposes, by man as well as by 
women. [See Ostrich Feathers.] 

Feather-stitch. A stitch used in embroidery, producing a partial imi- 
tation of feathers by small branches that ramify from a main stem. In 
mediaeval embroidery this pattern was called opus plumarium. 

Felt. Woolen cloth united without weaving. The word felt appears 
to have signified at a very early period a material formed of wool not 
woven, but compacted together, suitable for every form of garments. To 
felt or feltre is to form a matted tissue of wool or other short hair in which 
the fibres are so interlaced by their curls, and so closely united to one an- 
other by the almost imperceptible notches of their scaly coats as to form a 
consistence like that of thick cloth. The term "felting" is chiefly employed 
in the manufacture of hats, but tlte operation of thickening woolen cloth, by 
means of a fulling mill depends on the same principle. [See Fulling, 
Broadcloth.] 

All accounts of the discovery of the principle of felting are traditional, 
thus proving the extreme antiquity of felted materials. By one it is as- 
cribed to Oriental shepherds; another attributes it to an early English 
monarch, who putting some wool into his shoes to keep his feet warm, found 
that the combined heat, pressure, and moisture had produced a new fabric. 
According to some writers, a monk on a pilgrimage, having used some 
carded wool in his sandals, found that the fibres, by long friction between the 
foot and the sandal had matted together so as to produce a firm texture re- 
sembling cloth. From this hint the manufacture is said to have originated. 
An old hatter informed the writer that in his youth an annual festival was 
held in honor of this saint on the 23d of November, and that in Ireland and 
other Roman Catholic countries, the hatters still hold their annual festival 
on St. Clement's day, the saint who is the reputed inventor of felt. Again, 



134 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FEL 

it is asserted that as wool will sometimes, though rarely, felt upon the back 
of the living animal, that this may have led to the natural process being 
observed and imitated. There is, in any case, no doubt as to the antiquity 
of the process. It was known among the Greeks; Pliny mentions that the 
Gauls of his day made a kind of felt which was so firm and strong that it 
would resist a sword cut, more particularly when vinegar was employed 
during manufacture. Saxon writers continually mention the fellen haets — 
hats of felt — then used by their people. The Turcomans are said to dwell 
even to this day in huts covered with black and white felt, which they make 
by treading with their feet the raw wool while it lies upon the ground; and 
hence it is suggested that some of the wanderers among the Crusaders 
might have brought the art from Asia to Europe. 

The manufacture of felted materials, which are all non-shrinking, has 
of late years considerably improved since the microscope revealed the 
philosophy of the process, and thus indicated how alteration for the better 
might be affected. The secret of the felting of wool fibers has been a 
mystery in all ages, and until 1860 was at best only surmised. Upon this 
property alone depends the whole art of hatting and of felt making 
whether in sheets or otherwise, as well as the fulling of cloth and the 
shrinking of flannels, and all articles the material of which is made of 
wool, hair or fur. A few facts dependent upon the felting quality of hair 
will aid the illustration. When a hair is held by the root, and drawn 
through between the finger and thumb, it feels quite smooth, but when 
held by the top, a rough and tremulous motion is perceived. Again, place 
a hair three or four inches in length by the middle between the finger and 
thumb, and twirl it a few times, when the hair will be found to proceed 
toward one end, as the twirling and rubbing are continued, and invariably 
advancing root end foremost, whichever way the hair is placed between 
the fingers. If two hairs are used in this example, lay the root of one on 
the top of the other, and their respective motions will be doubly discerni- 
ble. The cause of this singularity of hair and wool fibres will now be 
explained as explicitly and concisely as possible: The above mentioned 
phenomena are the result of that same long-hidden property, and which is 
nothing more than a certain covering, entirely surrounding the stem of 
every hair in the form of minute scales, so very minute, indeed, that it 
requires the aid of a very powerful microscope to enable the beholder to 
discern them, and even then but faintly. These scales, which cover thickly 
every filament of animal hair, wool, fur, etc. are thin and pointed, some- 
what similar to the scales on a fish, and overlapping each other as do the 
shingles upon a house. The task of counting the number of these scales 
that cover the body of each hair is tedious and difficult, but it has fre- 
quently been successfully accomplished. On a single filament of merino 
wool, as many as 2,400 barbed scales, like teeth, projecting from the center 
stem have been counted in the space of an inch. On Saxony wool there 
were 2,700, while other wools were as low as 1860, and none were found to 



FEL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 135 

have so few as 1,000 to the inch. No vegetable fibre whatever, such as 
cotton, flax, hemp, etc., have any such appendage upon their fibres, conse- 
quently they can never, alone, become suitable material for felting pur- 
poses, every fibre being smooth from end to end in either direction, and in 
contradistinction to wool, which though equally smooth as the cotton one 
way, rebels triumphantly when irritated in the contrary direction, as 
already described. 

The grand cause of that mysterious and curious operation called felt- 
ing, fulling, milling, shrinking, thickening and solidifying of a fabric, 
whether of original loose wool, fur or other stuff, or of that spun into yarn 
and woven into cloth, is the presence of these scales. Till lately, the 
best posted mamufacturer and the investigating philosopher were equally 
at a loss to explain upon what principle such effects were produced. Take 
for instance, a handful of wet fur or wool, which is merely an assemblage 
of hairs; squeeze and press it, work it a little in the hand, and then observe 
the effect; for immediately upon pressing it a certain locomotion is there- 
by conferred upon every fibre of that assemblage, which is increased by 
every turn of position that is given to the body of wool. The rolling and 
pressing change the position of each fibre. A friction is produced upon 
every member composing the mass; a footing as it were is obtained from 
the scales of each, and the fur or wool being all bent or curled, a progres- 
sive motion goes on, interlacing each other in their travels, resulting in a 
compact, dense body which will challenge the goddess of patience to undo. 
Every hair has been traveling in its own direction, boring, warping, grasp- 
ing, holding and twisting amongst its fellows like a collection of live 
worms. 

The manufacture of felt was formerly accomplished entirely by hand. 
The first step in this operation was to mix in proper proportion the different 
kinds of wool or fur intended to form the fabric, and then by the vibratous 
strokes of the bowstring, to toss them up in the air, and to cause them to 
fall as regularly as possible on the table, spread and scattered. The work- 
man then covered this layer, or "lap" of loose fibre with a piece of thick 
blanket cloth, slightly moistened. This he pressed with his hands, moving 
the hairs backward and forward in all directions. Thus the different fibers 
get interlaced, by their ends pursuing ever- tortuous paths; their traveling 
motion being always, however, root foremost. As the matting became 
denser, the hand-pressure was increased in order to overcome the increas- 
ing resistence of the solidifying fibres. A first thin sheet of soft spongy felt 
being thus formed, a second is condensed upon it in like manner, and then 
a third, until the requisite thickness was obtained. These different pieces 
were successfully brought together and disposed in a way suitable to the 
wished-for article, and united by continued dexterous pressure. Of late 
years, however, machinery has been invented for the manufacture of felt. 
In machine work, the first operation consists first of carding the wool out 
into exceedingly fine uniform gossamer-like laps. These laps, of the length 



136 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FEL 

and breadth of the web to be made, are laid one on top of another in num- 
ber corresponding to the thickness desired in the finished article. The 
layer that is to appear on the face of the fabric is usually of finer texture 
than the body and the mass when ready for felting has the appearance of a 
huge sheet of cotton wadding. In this state the compound lap is passed 
between a series of opposite pressing rollers partly immersed in water, some 
of which are solid and heavy, and others hollow and heated internally by 
steam, imitating as nearly as possible the variable pressure of the human 
hand. In its progress the lap is not only squeezed between the rollers, but 
an oscillating motion being given to the upper series, it is at the same time 
submitted to a rubbing action, corresponding to the to-and-fro motion in 
the hand work, the result being that after a few hours in the machine it 
issues forth a dense, compact sheet of felt of uniform thickness. Felt so 
made is afterward dyed, printed, and otherwise finished by the ordinary 
processes applicable to woven tissues. 

As has been noted, felt may be made of any kind of animal fur, wool, 
or hair, provided it be bent, crimped, or curled; for if straight as a bristle it 
would work out of the mass as readily as into it, and lose itself in the 
operation. Wool of any great length of staple, after being carded, is 
pressed and either clipped, cut or chopped into shorter lengths, which 
facilitates the rapid felting, and also improves the solidity of the felt that is 
produced. >. The felting of wool necessitates either a damp or wet process 
with the aid of heat, and the facility for thickening or solidifying is 
hastened by the application of soap to the mass of fibres under operation. 
Or the water may be mixed with acid for the same purpose, as either of 
these acts as a penetrating solvent upon the natural oil of the wool which 
still remains between the scales and the stem of the hair, thus baring the 
barbed points of the crusty scales, the better to catch and hold their grip 
upon each other. Oil or grease, on the contrary, when applied directly 
upon wool,covers up these minute scales,thereby preventing their hold upon 
each other and destroying their felting power, as is well known to all wool 
spinners, however little they may understand the real cause of its being so, 
further than the fact of giving to it a smooth, gliding effect, so necessary 
for the object of their business. In the carding and spinning of worsted, in 
which the object is as far as possible to prevent the fibre from felting, the 
mass of wool is always greased with lard that it may be more easily worked. 
[See Fulling.] 

Fiber. [From Latin filum, a thread, whence also the words file and 
filament l\ A thread or filament; any'fine, thread-like part of a substance, 
as a single natural filament of wool, cotton, silk, or asbestos. There is a 
distinct and interesting difference between the fibers of wool, silk and 
cotton. As the silk worm makes its fiber it is a soft mucus, the fluid being 
secreted from the the nose, as it were, in two streams which combine at 
once in an infinitesimal double thread. This thread is perfectly smooth 
symmetrical and solid, not hollow like cotton and linen fibres, and without, 



FIB 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



137 



the minute branchlets the latter have upon them. Wool has scales or 
hooks, and is spiral, also, which is the reason it shrinks. It creeps together 
more and more as it is dampened and rubbed, becoming condensed and 
stiff. The shrinkage of flannel is not wholly to be laid to the washer- 
woman's ignorance— it is the inherent nature of the stuff to shrink and felt 
together. Perspiration mats and stiffens it, and so does every form of 
dampness. Silk is a great absorbent because its fibres are so glassy fine — 
a sort of spidery catgut — and fluids, water or oil creep between the fibers 
and are held, but will pass out quickly, evaporating and drying, or wdl 
wash out readily. It is like glass, in that nothing clings to it. For this 
reason it is necessarily hygienic and salutary. In its natural color silk 
accumulates no germs of disease and moths and bugs find no home m it- 
Cotton and other vegetable fibers grown from seeds, consist of single 
elongated tubes, hollow throughout, and without curl or kink. Flax fibre, 
like cotton, is smooth and hollow, and is jointed at regular intervals after 
the manner of the stalks of cane, or fishing poles. 

Textile fibers in their commercial acceptation includes all substances 
capable of being spun, woven or felted, numbering at present about 75 
separate and distinct varieties. Frequent additions are being made to the 
list; improved methods of cultivation and preparation, as well as increased 
facilities of transport, tending to bring into general use numerous kinds of 
fibers which formerly had only local and limited applications. All textile 
fibers of recognized commercial importance, will be found classified in the 
following table, and some points noticed of interest common to all: 



NAME OF FIBEB. 


LOCALITY. 


BEMABKS. 


Cotton i 

Silk-Cotton 


United States, South ) 
America, Egypt, > 
India _' ) 

Sunda, West Indies, ) 
Brazil ) 

India, Senegal, West ) 
Indies, North?- 
America ) 

Europe, N. America... 

India, Southern U. S._ 

India 




Vegetable Silk 

Flax 


Used only occasionally for stuffing. 

See Linen, Flax. 
See Hemp. 


SunnHemp, Jubbul- } 
pore Hemp ) 

Gambo 

Sida fiber 




India 

India and Australia ... 


Resembling and used like jute. See Jute. 






Jettee 




Same as above. 


Jettee 


Russia, Siberia and ? 


Prepared flax, and much used locally. 



133 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



FIB 



NAME OF FIBEB. 


LOCALITY. 


BEMABKS. 


Nettle Fiber 




Occasionally used for textile and paper. 




Siberia, South Sea ) 
Islands, Japan ) 

India, China > 

United States, Asia, / 
Java, Nepal I 

Bengal 


Used only in their native countries. 


Nilgherry Nettle 

Alleghanian Nettle, 1 
China Grass, Ea- > 
mie, Rhea ) 


Cultivation restricted on account of the 
sting. 

Closely allied fibers. See Ramie. 

Same as above. 




See Jute. 


Eaibhenda, Ochro, I 
Porush J 

Porush 


India > 

South America 

Bengal 


Used_ in India like jute and sunn hemp, 
which they resemble. 

Used for coffee bags in British Guiana. 


Mahwal, Bun-raj, ? 
Narwali, Sebestena ) 

Lime Tree Bast 


India _. 


Makes exceedingly tough useful ropes used 
for coarse cloth, twine and nets. 

Extensively used for mats. 


Europe 




South Sea Islands 

West Africa 


Beaten into native cloth. 




Cordage and paper making. 




India 


Cordage. 


Wawla 


West Indies 


Not strong. 




West Indies 


Like lime bast. 




West Indies . 


For cigarette wrappers. 




Deccan 


A very strong and almost colorless bast. 




India 


Like the above. 


Lace Bark 


West India 


Ornamental purposes. 


Pine Wool 


Germany 


Surgical wadding. 


Phorniium or New ) 
Zealand Flax J 

Manilla Hemp 


New Zealand 


Coarse cloth. 


East India 


Ship cordage. 


Plantam Fiber 

Bowstring Hemp 


Tropical regions 

India, Ceylon 


Cordage. 

A strong fiber. 


Sisal or Grass Hemp.. 

Agave Fiber... 

Silk Grass 


Central America, W. ) 
Indies . ) 

Central America, W. ) 
Indies ) 

South America 

Phillipene Islands.. Y 


Cordage, brush-making, etc. 

Cordage. 
Cordage. 


Pina Fiber 


Woven into very fine textures. 







FIB 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



139 



NAME OF FIBER. 



Vegetable Horse-hair. 

Screw Pine__. 

Panama Screw Pine.. 

Orin Vegetal 

Tacum 

Tibisire 

Cabbage Palm 

Tolipot 

Kitul 

Piassava 

Gomuti 

Rattan 

Coir 

Silk -\ 

Wool 



Central America 

Maurituns Yucatan. 

Central America 

Algeria 

Brazil 

Brazil 

Australia 

India 

Ceylon 

Brazil 

Java 

East India Islands.. 

Ceylon, etc 

Italy, France, Asia, 
United States 

In every civilized and 
semi-civilized conn 
try on the globe 



Upholstery purposes, like animal horse- 
hair. 

Panama hats, strips for matting. 

Panama hats, strips for matting. 

Substitute for horse-hair. 

Fine twine for hammocks. 

Cordage. 

Used for hat making. 

Matting, baskets. 

Brushes, cordage. 

Brushes, cordage. 

Native ship ropes. 

Strips for chair seats; fibers for stuffing. 

See Coib. 

See Silk. 
See Wool. 



Fibres of animal origin are few, but of the highest value while vege- 
table fibres are of an endless variety, and of the most diverse character as 
to quality. Animal fibres may be classed under two heads, silk and wool, 
using the terms in an extended sense. Animal and vegetable fibres pre- 
sent marked differences, not only in appearance, feel, and structure, but 
also in chemical character, and can be readily recognized in any mixed 
fabric by appropriate tests. Thus analine dyes, which communicate strong 
permanent colors to wool and silk, only produce on vegetable fibres a 
fugitive, easily-washed-out stain. Vegetable fibres in a mixed fabric may 
be distinguished by boiling a fragment of the material in a solution contain- 
ing 10 per cent, of soda, whereby the animal fibres dissolve, leaving the 
vegetable fibres intact. The sulphur contained in wool, from which silk is 
free, gives a ready means of distinguishing a mixture of these two fibres. In 
a solution of plumbate of soda wool becomes black, while silk is quite 
unaffected. For further tests see Cotton, Silk, Linen, Wool. 

Fiberlia ^fi-ber'-lia]. A recently introduced flax fibre made from the 
stalk of American flax, which can be combined with cotton or wool, or used 
alone, in the manufacture of fabrics. This has been a problem with textile 
manufactureis for over half a century. An English inventor, in 1851, an- 
nounced he had found a process whereby it could be done, but after 



140 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FlC 

practical tests it failed. The trouble was that the long straight fibre of flax 
which was cut to match both cotton and wool in length, had blunt flat ends, 
which showed in the manufacture of goods. By the new invention of fiber- 
lia the flax fibres are free from such defects and match in length either 
cotton or wool without being cut. The material ready for use is soft and 
pliable and will take dyes of the finest tints. The cost of production does 
not exceed 8 cents per pound, and can be furnished by the Northwestern 
States in practically unlimited quantities. In 1891 it was used in a limited 
way in the manufacture of blankets, about one-quarter fibrelia and three- 
quarters wool. It has also been used for toweling, and in the manufacture 
of cotton and woolen hosiery. In addition to its being used in the making 
of fabrics, it can be substituted for absorbent cotton in hospitals, as it pos- 
sesses the same properties of scraped lint or pure linen. 

Fichu (f e ' -shu). [French for ladies' neckerchief.] A triangular piece 
of lace worn around the neck instead of a collar, of various lengths ; some- 
times it is a combination of cape and scarf, pointed between the shoulders 
and crossing at the bosom, the long ends of which are allowed to hang 
loose. It was a favorite article of attire with Marie Antoniette, who 
brought it first into popularity in 1785. 

Filament. A fine, untwisted thread; a separate fiber of any vegetable 
or animal tissue, natural or artificial. [See Fiber.] 

Filature. A reel for drawing silk off from the cocoons; an establish- 
ment for reeling silk. Producers rarely reel the silk from cocoons, but in- 
stead ship them to the large filatures where the work is usually performed 
by skilled hand-labor. 

Filibeg. The Scotch kilt in its primitive form, consisting of one piece 
of cloth, covering the whole body, and girt around the waist. At present 
the term is applied to a pleated petticoat or skirt, reaching only to the 
knees; a kilt. 

Filoselle (fil-o-zel'). A loose, slackly-twisted silk thread used in 
fine-art needlework. It is put up in skeins, the strands of which can be 
divided or separated into six smaller ones, each suitable for being used in 
fancy work. 

Filling. The woof or weft in weaving. 

Fish Hooks. An article to be found in nearly every well-selected 
stock of notions, and one, also, which suggests the wonderful strides made 
by American manufacturers in the past few years. It has been but a short 
time since all of the small Yankee notions consumed in this country 
were imported from abroad, but at present in the manufacture of many of 
these articles foreign makers are completely shut out, and foreign markets 
even supplied by American industry. In fish hooks this is eminently the 
case. Even yet American-made goods are used by some dealers packed 
with foreign labels, to deceive consumers, who foolishly believe the foreign 



FLA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 141 

makes are better. The American Needle and Fish Hook Co. now produce 
the best tempered and most reliable fish hook in the world, in all the vari- 
ous sizes. There is a little machine which turns out fish hooks in six 
strokes. Stroke number one bites off a morsel of steel wire; number two 
makes the loop where the line is fastened; number three hacks the other 
end; number four flattens and bends the barb; number five makes the 
point; number six bends the wire, and the fish hook drops into a little 
bucket ready to be japanned and packed in gross boxes. 

Flags. It is probable that almost as soon as men began to collect 
together for common purposes some kind of conspicuous object was used, 
as the symbol of a common sentiment, as the rallying point of the common 
force. In military expeditions, where any degree of organization and dis- 
cipline prevailed, objects of such a kind would be necessary to mark out 
the lines and stations of encampment, and to keep in order the different 
bands when marching or in battle. And, in addition to all this, it cannot 
be doubted that flags or their equivalents have often served, by reminding 
men of past resolves, past deeds, past heroes, to rally to enthusiasm those 
sentiments of family pride and honor, of personal devotion, patriotism, or 
religion, upon which, as well as upon good leadership and numerical force, 
success in warfare depends. Among the remains of that people who have 
left the earliest traces of civilization — the Egyptians — the records and 
forms of objects used as ensigns are frequently to be found. These are of 
such designs as there is reason to believe were associated in the minds of 
men with feelings of awe and devotion. Sacred animals, boats, emblems, 
a tablet bearing a king's name, were raised on the end of a staff as stand- 
ards, and the office of bearing them was held a peculiar privilege and 
honor. Somewhat similar seem to have been the customs of the Assyrians. 
The Persians bore an eagle fixed to the end of a lance upon their standard, 
which appears to have been formed of some kind of textile, and was 
guarded with the greatest jealousy by the bravest men in the army. The 
Carian soldier who slew the great Cyrus was allowed the honor of carrying 
a golden cock at the head of the army, it being the custom of the Carians 
to wear that bird as a crest on their helmets. The Greeks bore a piece of 
armor on a spear in early times; afterward the Athenians bore the olive and 
the owl, the Corinthians a pegasus, the Thebans a sphinx. The Dacians 
carried a standard representing a contorted serpent, while the dragon was 
the military sign of many peoples. The North American Indians carried 
poles fledged with feathers plucked from the wings of eagles, and similar 
customs seem to have prevailed among other semi-savage peoples. 

The flags of the United States were many and various both before and 
after the Declaration of Independence, and even after the introduction of 
the stars and stripes these underwent many changes in the manner of their 
arrangement before taking the position at present established. Since 1818, 
however, it has consisted of thirteen horizontal stripes, representing the 
thirteen original states of the Union, seven red and six white, placed alter- 



142 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FLA 

nately, with a blue field having displayed on it one white five-pointed star 
for each state in the Union. It is asserted by historians that the design 
was originated by Washington, copied partially from the coat-of-arms of 
the Washington family in use prior to their removal from England. 

The manufacture of flags falls naturally into three large classes. The 
first is composed of those that are made out of some appropriate material, 
either bunting, silk or cotton, sewed together and thus made into one en- 
sign. The second includes the clamp-dyed bunting flags, which are the 
most expensive .examples in wool that are manufactured. The third class 
consists of the printed cotton flags, vast quantities of which, of a very 
cheap sort, are used for special and temporary purposes, such as decorating 
soldiers' graves, the garnishing of banquet halls and the beautifying of 
stores on holdiays. The bunting of which our national emblem is 
formed is composed entirely of wool of a strong fiber, to enable the flag to 
stand any amount of flapping and stress of weather. For this purpose the 
staple selected is long, and generally of so coarse a quality that it would 
be used for no other purpose than frieze cloth or carpets. The yarn is 
strongly twisted and feels in the cloth to be very harsh and hard. Until 
the close of 1864 the whole of the bunting used in the United States was 
shipped from England, and it was in this year that some one asked General 
Benj. Butler who was largely interested in the United States Bunting Co., 
why he did not make bunting. This led the company, who had previously 
been importing their goods to make experiments, which resulted in the 
successful manufacture of American bunting. Tests were made by mili- 
tary men of the relative value of American as against foreign bunting, and 
the result was so satisfactory that large orders were given out, and the 
General's company enjoyed a long run of prosperity. The effect on prices 
since then has been extraordinary, for the bunting which in 1864 sold at 
$30 to $40 per piece, now sells at $5 per piece. The bunting is woven in 
the natural white color of the wool, and is then either dyed in the whole 
piece, or clamp-dyed. Clamp-dyeing consists in dyeing a single wide 
piece of bunting with alternate bars or stripes of red, in order to avoid the 
the necessity of sewing together separate stripes to constitute the colors. 
It is an expensive process, for in order to prevent the part of the piece not 
intended to be colored from taking the dye it is covered up and squeezed 
by two pieces of wood. As it is both tedious and expensive, clamp-dyed 
bunting plays only a small part in flag making. The general way is to take 
the' piece and have it dyed the proper colors, and from these to fashion the 
flag. The stars are cut out with dies and sewn by sewing machines on the 
proper place. The stripes and colors are done in the same manner. As to 
durability there is little to choose between either process, but the clamp- 
dyed flags make the lightest as well as the most attractive emblems when 
examined. It would be difficult to estimate the aggregate annual produc- 
tion of flags of all sorts, but the amount is something enormous, and it may 
well cause wonder, as in the case of pins, where they all go to. In the ag- 



FLA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 143 

gregate, the commercial harvest based upon the love of our people for 
their national emblem is a rich one. The industry supplies thousands of 
good Americans with steady work during campaign seasons, and as the 
patriotic effect of having the flag so universally unfurled cannot but be 
helpful to the public, all engaged in the manufacture and sale of these 
articles can feel a solid satisfaction in a comfortable combination of gain 
and public spirit. 

Flannel. [From Welch gwlanen; in the Middle Ages known as 
flannella and flannen?\ Wales appears to have been the home of flannels, 
and this one fabric has long been the only textile manufactured in that 
country, while it has been of so much importance there that fairs have been 
commonly held solely for the exhibition and sale of flannels. The high 
estimation in which Welch flannels are still held is attributed to the fact 
that hand labor is much employed in their production. Flannels are woven 
of "woolen" yarn, but slightly twisted in the spinning, the object being to 
have the cloth soft and spongy without particular regard to strength. The 
manufacture is identical with that of other "woolen" goods, their organiza- 
tion being closely allied to that of blankets (which see). The best grades of 
flannels intended for men's shirts, ladies blouses, etc., commonly known 
under the term of Cricket flannels, are always shrunk more than the common 
qualities, because of the numerous cleansing processes they must necessar- 
ily undergo after being made into garments. The "shrinking is accom- 
plished by folding a bolt-length of flannel between heavy wet sheets, and 
letting it remain there 24 hours. The pieces are then hung upon rails to 
dry in rooms heated by hot pipes. The next process is to fold them in 
specially prepared papers, which have a very glossy surface. They are 
then pressed, some mills using hydraulic, others large hand presses, worked 
by8orl0men. The more pressure the more "clothy" they feel. Cheap 
flannels are never shrunk, because they will not stand it. When being 
made into wearing apparel by factories they do not even make the ac- 
quaintance of the tailor's goose, as they would contract a full "size" or 
more from the heat. Flannel is recommended by medical men for 
clothing in both hot and cold countries, from its property of promoting in- 
sensible perspiration, which, being absorbed by the spongy material, is im- 
mediately distributed equally throughout by the whole thickness of the 
fabric, and thus being exposed over a large surface is carried off by the 
atmosphere, keeping the body at the same time at an equal temperature. 
Like other woolen fabrics, flannels are bleached by the steam of burning 
sulphur to improve their whiteness. The quality of domestic flannel is de- 
noted by the ounces of weight per square yard. [See Wool, Woolen, 
Shaker, Canton, Vegetable, Tricot, Outing, Basket, Opera, Flan- 
nellette, underwear.] 

Flannellette (flan-el-ef). A soft loose-woven cotton fabric, white, 
self-colored, or woven in stripes or checks, with a short nap raised on both 



144 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FLA 

sides, which gives them the appearance of flannel. Known also under the 
names of outing cloth, gypsy flannel, domet, etc. These fabrics are finished 
by the simple process of teasling on a machine specially made for the pur- 
pose. The cloth is sometimes run through the machine twice. Some 
machines are made to raise the nap on both sides at one passage of the 
cloth, according to the strength of the cloth and quality of nap required. 
As the nap is obtained by a partial cutting of the fibers on the surface of 
the cloth, the latter is somewhat weakened in strength, and therefore flan- 
nellettes do not wear, as a rule, as well as plain calicoes. However, the 
"feel" is softer and warmer to the skin. The nap is not very permanent, 
although there is great variation between different makes of flannellette; 
in this respect much of the durability of the nap depending upon the qual- 
ity of the cloth used: the stronger and more closely woven the cloth the 
better they wear. Sometimes flannellettes are dyed and printed after the 
nap is raised; in such cases, as both these processes are destructive to the 
nap, only good cloths well napped can be used. [See Domet.] 

Flat goods. A term used to designate woolen or cotton knitted under- 
wear as distinguished from Jersey or ribbed underwear. 

Flax. [The common name for the plants of the genus Linnum.~\ The 
term flax is employed at once to denote the fiber so called, and the plant 
from which it is prepared. Like most plants which have been long under 
domestic cultivation, it possesses numerous varieties, while the wild or 
parent condition is not known. As cultivated the plant is an annual, with 
an erect stalk rising to the height of 20 to 40 inches, branching only at tne 
top into panicles of bright blue flowers. The stem by various processes 
described hereafter, is freed from all useless matter, leaving the elongated 
inner part in the form of a soft, silky fiber. The cultivation and prepara- 
tion of flax are the most ancient of all textile industries, reaching back to 
the very earliest periods of civilization. Its use was most extensively and 
variously applied in the lake dwellings, even in those of the stone period. 
But of the mode in which it was planted, steeped, heckled, cleansed, and 
generally prepared for use, no idea can be formed, any more than what 
can be derived from the tools unearthed employed by the settlers in the 
cultivation. Rough or unworked-flax is found in the lake dwellings made 
into bundles, or what are techincally called heads, and, as much attention 
was given to this last operation, it was perfectly clean and ready for use. 
That flax was extensively cultivated and was regarded as of much impor- 
tance at a very early period in the world's history there is abundant testi- 
mony. Although flax is to be found in a semi-wild state in many parts of 
Great Britain, it is very doubtful whether for many ages our British ances- 
tors were aware of the use of this plant for clothing purposes: they would 
otherwise have left behind them some shred of linen in one or other of 
their many graves. Following, as they did, the usage of being buried in 
the best garments they were accustomed to, or most loved when alive 



FLA COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 145 

their bodies would have been found dressed in some small article of linen 
texture, had they ever worn it. We must go to the valley of the Nile if 
we wish to learn the earliest history of flaxen textiles. Time out of mind 
the Egyptians were famous as well for the growth of flax as for the beauti- 
ful linen which they wove out of it, and which became to them a most 
profitable, because so widely sought for, article of commerce. Long before 
the oldest book in the world was written, the tillers of the soil all over the 
land of Egypt had been heedful in sowing flax, and anxious about its 
harvest. It was one of their staple crops, and hence it was that in punish- 
ment of Pharoah, the hail plague, which at the bidding of Moses fell from 
heaven, destroyed throughout the land the flax just as it was getting ripe. 
Flax grew also upon the banks of the stormy Jordon, and in Judea 
generally; and the women of the country, like Rahab, carefully dried it 
when pulled, and stacked it for future hackling upon the roofs of their 
homely huts. For many ages, even down to the early part of the 14th 
century, Egyptian flax occupied the formost place in the commercial 
world, being sent into all regions with which open intercourse was main- 
tained. Among Western nations it was, without any competitor, the most 
important of all vegetable fibers till towards the close of the 18th century, 
when, after a brief struggle, cotton took its place as the supreme vegetable 
fiber of commerce. 

From the earliest periods the inhabitants of Ireland were acquainted 
with the valuable qualities possessed by the fiber of the flax plant, and 
manufactured it for clothing. By whom, however, or from what country it 
was introduced, there exists no satisfactory record. The Irish name for 
flax is "IMn," which word is also applied to thread, while the term "anaitt" 
is used to express coarse linen cloth. For many years past the production 
of Irish flax has been on the decline. It is one of the most distressing facts 
of that distressful country, that while the linen industry of Belfast has been 
growing and prospering, the native cultivation of the raw material has 
been steadily and miserably diminishing. Russia, Holland, Belgium and 
Germany each send their quota of flax to the manufacturers of Belfast. 

According to competent authorities, this state of things does not arise 
from the national inferiority of Irish flax, or to the unsuitability of soil or 
climate. It is even stated that the soil of no country in the world possesses 
the properties for the production of fiber equal to the soil of Ireland. The 
failure of Irish flax to be accepted and encouraged by the manufacturers of 
Belfast is on account of the defective way in which the crop is cultivated; 
due to the ignorance and lack of skill on the part of the Irish farmer. 
There is this all-important difference between the flax industry of other 
European countries and that of Ireland: In Ireland, the farmers produce 
the crop and prepare it for the cloth manufacturer. In Belgium, in Hol- 
land, and in Russia, on the other hand, the farmer concerns himself solely 
with the cultivation of the crop. The preparation of the fiber is in the 
hands of persons specially skilled and trained in this particular line of 
10 



146 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRV GOODS. FLA 

work, consequently they have a much better prepared fiber to offer the 
manufacturer than that of the Irish farmer, and at the same price. The 
continuance in Ireland of the old system is known to entail much loss and 
waste, and while it is seemingly on account of a better soil and higher 
quality of flax, the difference in reality arises from the superior preparation 
of fiber that the Belfast manufacturers prefer the foreign to the home-grown 
article. 

In all countries, after the farmer has sown the seed and gathered the 
crop, several processes remain before the flax can be used in the cloth 
mills. Flax is always pulled up by the root, and under no circumstances 
is it cut or shorn like cereal crops. The pulling is done in dry clear 
weather, and care is taken in this, as in all subsequent operations, to keep 
the root ends even, and the stalks parallel. At the same time it is desirable 
to have, as far as possible, stalks of equal length together — all these con- 
ditions having considerable influence on the quality and appearance of the 
yarn when spun. The next operation, termed rippling, immediately fol- 
lows the pulling, and consists in removing the head and seeds of the flax. 
Retting, or rotting, is the operation the flax next undergoes, for the purpose 
of separating the fiber from the woody core and softening it in order that it 
may be fitted for spinning. This is an operation of the greatest importance, 
and one in connection with which in recent years numerous experiments 
have been made, and many projects and processes put forth, with a view of 
improving on the primitive method or altogether supplanting it. From the 
earliest times two leading processes of retting have been practiced, termed 
respectively "water retting" and "dew-retting," and as no method has yet 
been invented which satisfactorily supersedes these old-time operations, 
they will first be described. 

Water-retting. — For this (the process by which flax is generally pre- 
pared) pure soft water, free from iron and other materials which might 
color the fiber, is essential. The ponds in which this operation is con- 
ducted are of variable size, but are uniformly about four feet in depth. The 
rippled stalks are tied in small bundles and packed roots downward in 
the water; over the top of each upper layer is placed straw or rushes 
fastened with stones of sufficient weight to keep the flax submerged. 
Generally in from ten days to two weeks the process is complete, and 
when it is found by being frequently examined that the fiber separates 
readily from the core, the bundles are removed from the water, and spread 
evenly over a grassy meadow, where it is left for two weeks to dry. At this 
point the peth will be ready to remove, by the process of "scutching.'' 

Dew-retting is the process by which the larger portion of Russian flax 
is prepared. By this method steeping in water is entirely dispensed with, 
and the flax is, immediately after pulling, spread on the grass where it is 
for two or three months subjected to the influence of air, sun-light, night- 
dews and rain. The process is tedious, and the resultant fiber is brown in 
color, though peculiarly soft and silky in structure. 



FLA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 147 

Scutching is the process by which the fiber is finally freed from its 
woody core and rendered fit for market. For ordinary water-retted flax 
two operations are required; first breaking and then scutching, and these 
are done either by hand labor or by means of small scutching mills, driven 
by steam power or water power. The breaking is done by passing the 
stalks between grooved rollers, and the broken cores are beaten out by 
suspending the fiber in a machine fitted with revolving blades, which, 
striking violently against the flax, shake out the rotten and broken woody 
cores. The inferior parts of the flax removed by these operations is called 
" tow." 

In regard to the process of retting, it may be said that different meth- 
ods prevail in different countries, according to local circumstances. In 
Holland, stones are scarce, so that the flax has to be laid on the surface of 
the water and then covered with mud raked up from the bottom of the 
pond. To a large extent retting continues to be conducted in the primi- 
tive fashions above described, though numerous and persistent attempts 
have been and are, at present, being made to improve upon it, or to avoid 
the process altogether. The latest invention is by an expert in Minneapo- 
lis, Minn., who, with the aid of the microscope, has discovered that the 
rotting is performed by a microbe that devours the glue, which makes the 
fiber adhere to the wood. He claims it is possible to breed a great number 
of these microbes in an inconceivably short time. The results expected is 
that months will be reduced to hours in linen production, and that it will be 
only a matter of a few years when linen cloth will be as cheap as cotton, 
yard for yard. It is needless to suggest that it is highly improbable that 
the inventor's views will be borne out by the lapse of time. 

Flax, after undergoing the operations of breaking and scutching, are 
shipped to the linen mills where it is prepared for weaving by the pro- 
cesses of roving and spinning. These do not differ greatly from the pro- 
cesses used in the spinning of cotton (which see). Spinners make up their 
yarn into " bundles " of twenty hanks, each hank containing ten " leas " of 
300 yards each — 3,000 yards. The quality and size of all linen yarn is de- 
noted by the number of "leas" (300 yards) in a pound; thus, 50-lea yarn 
indicates that there are fifty leas of 300 yards each in a pound of the yarn 
so denominated. 

No. 60 yarn = 60 leas of 300 yards each, or 18,000 yards to the pound. 
" 100 " =100 " " 300 " " " 30,000 " " " 

" 200 " =200 " " 300 " " " 60,000 " " " " 

» 500 " = 500 " " 300 " " " 150,000 " " " " 

Commercial qualities of yarn range from 8- up to 160-lea. Much finer 
yarn, even up to as high as 550, may be spun by machines found in many 
factories, but these fine counts are used only for fine thread and the mak- 
ing of lace. Exceedingly high counts have sometimes been spun by hand. 
For the preparation of the finest Brussels lace, it is said the Belgian hand 
spinners must work in damp cellars, where the spinner is guided by the 



148 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FLA 

sense of touch alone, the filament being too fine to be seen by the eye. The 
lace made of this is reported to have been sold as high as $1200 per pound. 
[See Lace]. In the great Exhibition in London in 1851 yarn of 760-lea — 
equal to 130 miles to the pound of flax — was shown which had been spun 
by hand by an Irish woman 84 years old. The various operations con- 
nected with linen weaving, such as winding, warping, dressing, and beam- 
ing do not differ materially from cotton weaving, the looms being the same. 

It is an error to suppose that Ireland grows more flax than other 
countries. The latest correct statistics show as follows: Flax grown on 
the Continent of Europe 5,700,000 acres; Ireland 123,000 acres, and in the 
United States 1,318,658 acres. Of this Minnesota raised 167,264 acres; 
Dakota, 488,993; Iowa, 265,000; Nebraska, 150,922; besides a large acreage 
in Wisconsin. Ireland in 1892 produced only 25,000 tons of fibre, and im- 
ported 90,000 tons from Russia and Belgium, and this imported fibre, as 
before stated, is better than they produce at home. The average annual 
production of flax is as folllows: Russia, 270,000 tons; Austria, 53,000; 
Germany, 48,000; Belgium and Holland 38,000; France, 37,000; United King- 
dom, 25,000; Italy, 23,000; United States, 12,000; Scandinavia, 4,000— total, 
510,000 tons. In no country in the world does the cultivation of flax attain 
such large dimensions as in Russia. Russia alone produces more flax than 
all other countries of Europe combined. Out of the total area sown in 
Europe in 1891 with flax, and amounting to about 5,700,000 acres, more than 
3,700,000 acres were sown in Russia. Notice must at the same time be taken 
of the fact that while in all European countries without exception the area 
of land under the cultivation of flax is being annually more and more re- 
duced, it is in Russia, on the contrary, being increased. The total quantity 
of flax fibre produced in the whole of Europe is estimated to be 1,354,000,- 
000 pounds. The share which Russia has in the total quantity produced in 
all Europe is exactly two-thirds. About one-half of the flax fibre produced 
in Russia is exported abroad, the other half remaining in the Empire, be- 
ing worked up by the peasants at their farm-houses into thread and linen 
for their own use, as well as for sale. The home trade is entirely in the 
hands of small dealers, who drive from village to village and make their 
purchases in small lots. The flax thus collected is then sent in considerable 
quantities to the towns which serve as centres to the flax trade. 

The finest flax in the world comes from Courtrai, Belgium, and is the 
most valuable staple in the market on account of its fineness, strength, and 
particularly bright color. There the flax is dried in the field and housed 
during the winter succeeding its growth, and in the spring of the following 
year it is retted in crates sunk in the sluggish waters of the river Lys. For 
many miles both sides of the river are used as steeping grounds, presenting 
a curious sight to the tourist. In all the operations necessary to prepare 
flax the greatest care is taken, and the cultivators being peculiarly favored 
as to the soil, climate and water, Courtrai flax forms a staple of unap- 
proached excellence. 



FEL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 149 

The census report of 1890 shows the total area of land devoted to the 
cultivation of flax in the United States to have been 1,318,658 acres, and the 
production of flax-seed 10,250,410 bushels, the amount of flax sold 207,527 
tons, and the total value of all flax products $10,436,228. Although flax- 
seed is reported from thirty-one states, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa 
and Nebraska produce 80 per cent, of the total amount. Throughout the 
greater portion of the principal flaxseed producing regions, flax straw is of 
little or no value, and much of the so-called fiber is only an inferior quality 
of tow, used chiefly for upholstering purposes. There are indications, how- 
ever, of the revival in the United States of a linen industry that will afford 
a market for fine flax fiber of domestic production and revive a branch of 
agriculture and manufacture that for many years has been almost extinct. 
[See Linen, Crash, Bleaching, Weaving]. 

Fleece. The coat of wool that covers a sheep, or that is shorn from a 
sheep at one time. In commerce, wools are distinguished as fleece-wools 
and dead-wools, the former being obtained from living animals at the 
annual shearings, and the latter from animals that have been killed; as at 
the various packing houses over the country. [See Wool.] In the United 
States the heaviest shearing sheep are the Merino breed, the heaviest 
recorded fleece being that taken from a ram owned by Reynolds & Daved, 
of Mulvane, Kans., the weight of which was 52 pounds. The heaviest 
recorded ewe fleece weighed 30 pounds, from the same flock, and 13X 
pounds represents the weight of the heaviest fleece of scoured wool. The 
term fleece is also applied to a fabric with a soft, silky pile, used for 
warmth, as for lining garments, gloves, and caps; such articles are said to 
be fleece-lined. 

Fleur-de-lis (fleur-de-lee ' ). [From French fleur-de-lis, flower of the 
lily.] A pattern in weaving representing the flower of the lilly or head of 
a lance, consisting essentially of a bell-shaped stem with a bar at the 
bottom, and a short recurved stem on each side. The plural is fleurs-de- 
lis. 

Floret-silk. In silk manufacturing, a yarn spun from the first and 
purest of the "waste," and of higher quality than noil-yarn. [See Silk, 
Noil.] 

Floretta (flo-ret'-a). Floss-silk. 

Floss-silk, An embroidery-thread, made of silk fiber from the finest 
part of the cocoon, carded and spun, but not twisted, so as to be soft and 
downy in its surface while retaining a high luster; very similar to filoselle, 
which often replaces it. Floss-silk is also the name given to the portions of 
raveled silk broken off in the filature of the cocoons, which is carded like 
cotton or wool, and spun into a soft coarse yarn or thread for making 
bands, shawls, sacks, and other common silk fabrics. 

Fold. A double or lap of cloth, of any description. All dress silks 
are put up in folds \% yards long (1 aune.) French fabrics, such as sa- 



150 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FOL 

teens, lawns, organdies, etc., are usually put up in folds of 1 metre (1 yard 
and ^V) The same description of fabrics made in the United States are 
folded in 1-yard lengths. Both French and American silks, however, are 
folded in aune lengths. 

Fondu (fon-du'). Softened, blended; denoting a style in which 
colors are so applied as to pass insensibly into each other through delicate 
gradations; especially said of certain styles in calico printing. 

Foolscap. A writing paper, usually folded, varying in size from 12x15 
to 12>£xl6 inches; so called from its former watermark, the outline of a 
fool's head and cap, for which other devices are now substituted. The 
design originated with the English Rump Parliament, under Cromwell, 
who out of contempt for King Charles, ordered that the royal arms in the 
watermark of the paper should be removed, and a fool's cap and bells 
substituted. [See Paper.] 

Foot. A unit of length, originally the length of a man's foot. The 
English foot, which is in use in the United States, contains 12 inches. The 
feet in use in different European countries before the introduction of the 
metric system varied from 9 to 21 English inches. The ancient Roman 
foot is know to have been 11.65 English inches. Other ancient feet are of 
uncertain length. A foot of grindstone was formerly 8 inches. [See Metric 
System, Cloth Measure, Ell, Aune, Fold, Metre, Measures.] 

Foot-glove. A heavy woolen stocking worn in northern regions over 
the shoes while riding; a v/arm muffler for the feet. 

Foot-sheet. A cloth spread over the chair and floor for a person to sit 
upon, while the toilet is being made. 

Forwarder. An individual or a firm who ships or sends forward 
goods for others to their destination by the instrumentality of third persons. 
Neither a consignor shipping goods nor a carrier while engaged in trans- 
porting them is called a forwarder. The name is applied strictly to one 
who undertakes to see the goods of another put in the way of transporta- 
tion, without himself incurring the liability of a carrier to deliver. A car- 
rier who undertakes to transport the goods only part of the way, often 
becomes a forwarder in respect to the duty of delivering them to some 
other carrier who completes the transportation. 

Foulard (fou-lard'). A term which at first denoted a thin gauze 
French riband. At present foulard silk is a soft, thin washable dress silk, 
woven without twill, and generally, printed in colors on black or white 
grounds. It was originally made in India, but is now successfully produced 
in France. An imitation of silk foulard is also made of cotton, of a medium 
soft finish, printed with mingled patterns; used for women's dresses. This 
latter was formerly much used, but its manufacture is now almost discon- 
tinued, having been superseded by sateen; sometimes known under the 
name of foulardine. 



FOU COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 151 

Four-in-hand. A style of neckwear for men distinguished by being 
wider a tone end than at the other, which when tied presents the appear- 
ance and form of a made-up scarf. 

Fox. To cover the upper of a shoe with ornamental leather; also to 
repair a shoe by renewing the front upper-leather. 

French Camhric. A very fine variety of linen or cotton cambric 
used for handkerchiefs, neckwear, and similar things. [See Cambric] 

French Merino. An extremely fine-twilled woolen cloth, made from 
the wool of Merino sheep, and used for ladies' dresses. [See Merino.] 

French Quilting. Same as pique (which see.) 

French Twill. A variety of French Merino of inferior fineness but of 
great durability. 

Frieze (freez). [So called from having been first made in ancient 
Friesland, the most northerly province of Holland.] A heavy, shaggy, 
woolen cloth, covered with a thick nap forming little tufts, manufactured 
to some extent for blankets and clothing, but more especially for men's 
winter over coats. Perhaps no textile produced by Irish manufacturing 
skill is more justly celebrated or more widely known than Irish Frieze. 
The chief features which distinguish freize from all other cloths are its 
absolute imperviousness to rain and its extraordinary durability. This per- 
tains of course to the genuine Irish Freize, not the counterfeit which of late 
years hasbeen quite plentiful in American markets. The manufacturers of 
Ireland exercise particular care to select the longest and strongest wool 
from the best washed fleeces. This wool is first dyed in the mass, and 
afterwards, when spun, is doubled so as to resemble yarn. It is then 
woven, after which it is put through the thickening or fulling process. 
This consists of a prolonged washing and sousing the cloth in a carefully- 
prepared solution slowly heated up to the boiling point, and then as slowly 
cooled again. This shrinks and thickens the fabric to such an extent that 
it becomes almost impossible, after cutting the goods, to separate one 
thread from another, so closely are they fulled, and so interdependent upon 
each other. The cloth is then finished with a nap, more or less heavy, as 
desired. [See Napping.] 

Century after century, so long that the mind of man runneth not to the 
contrary, freize has posed as the national cloth of Ireland, the distinctive 
dress of patriot, peasant and peer; and, since the 17th century has steadily 
remained an outward badge of the people's aspirations for nationality. For 
when England destroyed Ireland's commerce by the infamous Navigation 
Act of 1663, and the injured country began to promote its own manufacture, 
it was to the woolen industry that it turned its chief attention, and on 
which it founded its highest hopes for a revival for its prosperity. It 
was at this time that the making of frieze became the occupation of 
the women of every cottage; while the men tended the herds of sheep 
and prepared the wool, the colleens kept their spinning wheels whirling 



152 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FRI 

and their looms clacking with the materials for the great staple. And 
when in 1699 England made the exportation of woolen goods from Ireland 
a crime, and the people of Erin became too poor to use the finer qualities 
of cloths, they still had need of frieze in local trade and private use. In 
1799, when the condition of the peasantry was most deplorable, they be- 
sought the king to interpose in their favor, and grant them leave to export 
and sell at least the coarse frieze blankets and flannels which the peasant 
wives and children produced in their cabins. But their appeal was in vain. 
The English Parliment that had ruined their trade and suppressed their 
most profitable manufactures, refused to allow them to dispose of the 
goods made by the hands of women and children. At last, when the 
volunteer movement triumphed, the unjust British laws were repealed, and 
the great trade of the colonies was thrown open to them. Frieze is still 
made in Ireland. No longer woven to any extent on hand-looms, it is 
produced with improved machinery, from beautiful patterns, by skillful 
workmen in prosperous mills. It is honest goods. There is no shoddy in 
it. Every thread is wool, and the wear is everlasting. Pure as the patriot- 
ism of the people who make it, simple as their nature, true as their love, 
it is typical of Irishmen, and deserves to have its name inseparably 
linked to theirs in its name of Irish Frieze. 

Fringe. An ornamental bordering formed of short lengths of thread, 
whether loose or twisted, variously arranged and combined, projecting 
from the edge of the material ornamented. Fringe may consist of the 
frayed or raveled edge of the fabric ornamented, but is generally of other 
material, attached by stitching. Gold and silver fringe, such as now used 
for epaulettes, has been worn by ecclesiastics as far back as history has 
traced the dress of people, but was not adopted in civil costume until the 
15th century. The styles of trimming-fringes for centuries have come and 
gone at Fashion's dictate. Sometimes in the form of knotted and twisted 
silk, and again as the curly chenille. Fringe is essentially a creature of 
Fashion, depending upon her smile for its ephemeral existence; while her 
frown is a token for its speedy departure. 

Frock. [From Yx.froc, a monk's cowl or habit.] Originally a long 
coat with large sleeves, worn by monks. At present a garment covering 
the body and worn by either sex; also a loose outer garment worn by 
workmen, as agricultural laborers, etc., over their other clothes. [See 
Smock-Frock.] 

Frock-coat. A body-coat for men, usually double-breasted and with 
a full skirt; opposed to sack-coat, which has no skirt, and to cutaway, with 
a short and tapering skirt. [See Prince Albert, Cutaway Coat.] 

Frocking. A fabric suitable for making men's work-frocks; specifi- 
cally coarse jean or drill. 

Frog 1 . An ornamental fastening for the front of men's coats and 
ladies' cloaks and waists, usually made of metal or braiding, and consisting 



FRO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 153 

of a spindle-shaped button attached by a cord, and corresponding- with a 
loop on the opposite side of the garment. A pair of frogs fixed on the 
opposite side of the coat may allow of buttoning either way. On silk 
plush cloaks the frogs are generally of sealskin. [See Brandenburg.] 

Frontal. An ornamental band for the hair, worn by women. 

Fugitive colors. Those colors which fade, or are more or less 
destroyed by the action of light, air, and atmospheric heat and moisture; 
those also which fade under the action of dilute acids or alkalis, as of soap 
solutions in washing. 

Fuller's-earth. A species of clay, used by fullers to take grease out 
of cloth before they apply the soap. When good it has a greenish-white 
color, falls into powder in water, giving the water a milky hue, and appears 
to melt on the tongue like butter. It is not at present used to the extent it 
once was, other substances having taken its place. 

Fulling'. The process of condensing a previously formed fabric, caus- 
ing it to assume a stronger and firmer body; especially applied to woolen 
goods. The first operation which a cloth that is to be fulled undergoes, 
after it is woven, is braying, the object of which is to get rid of the oil used 
preparatory to spinning, and also to get rid of the size used in dressing the 
warp. The cloth as it leaves the loom is greasy and rough, and is subjected 
to a number of processes which make it compact in texture and smooth and 
level in surface. In this operation the scouring stocks are used, which, 
under the more modern name of fulling mill, are supposed to stand, in 
point of antiquity, next to the corn or flour mill. Everyone is familiar with 
the fact that blankets and flannels tend to contract with frequent washings, 
gaining in thickness and solidity what they lose in strength and elasticity; 
such shrinkage is greatly hastened when woolen fabrics are rubbed in very 
hot water. This shrinkage is the result of the curly, scaly structure of 
wool fibers. The operation of fulling is now performed by a steam fulling 
mill. The old method of fulling by the stocks is wasteful of power, and 
the blows the stocks give with the heavy wooden mallets tend to sometimes 
tear and bruise the cloth, drawbacks from which the fulling mill is free. 
The cloth to be fulled is, after braying, first well saturated with hot water 
and soap, and pressed and rolled, and scoured and rubbed between the 
slow-revolving rollers of the fulling-machine while so heated and soaped. 
The more prolonged the operation the more does the woolen material 
shrink up and thicken. Twelve hours in the mill will reduce a piece of 
cloth two-fifths of its breadth, and one-third of its length, though it is possi- 
ble to carry the operation to the extent of reducing cloth to one-half of its 
original length and breadth. The amount of fulling they receive is the dis- 
tinguishing feature of many varieties of cloth. In the treatment of broad- 
cloth, doeskin, melton, and all nap-finished woolens, the fulling is carried 
so far that the fibers become densely matted, obliterating all the appear- 
ance of the weave, and giving the piece more the aspect of felt. Fabrics 



154 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FUL 

to which no nap-finish is given are fulled only to the extent of solidifying 
the substance and strength of the texture. Tweeds are very slightly fulled 
in order to give them a "dressed" surface. The traveling motion of wool 
under the combined action of heat and moisture, resulting in the entangle- 
ment of the fibers and consequent fulling and shrinking of the cloth, is fur- 
ther exemplified in the case of Scotch caps and the hose shipped to the 
inhabitants of northern latitudes. The latter are first knit of a size suf- 
ficiently large to enclose the body of a man, and afterward fulled down to 
fit the foot. During the fulling of any and all kinds of goods, they must be 
frequently taken out and stretched, turned, the folds straightened and gen- 
erally inspected. On conclusion of the operation the goods are scoured to 
free them from the soap, which is very simply done with pure water, tepid 
at first, but gradually cooled by additions till in the end the cloth is worked 
in pure cold water. [See Felting, Broadcloth, Teasling, Singeing.] 

Fulling- Mill. A power-machine for fulling and felting woven fabrics, 
to improve their texture by making them thicker, closer and heavier. Such 
mills operate by means of rollers, stampers and beaters, of various sizes 
and forms, but usually of wood, which roll, toss and press the fabric in hot 
suds and fuller's earth till the required texture is obtained. The result of 
the process is a reduction in length, in width, and in case of hats of size. 
[See Hats]. 

Full Regular. A method of seaming knitted hose, underwear or 
gloves, by which the edges of the web are connected by hand, the loops 
on either side being so neatly taken up and joined as to leave no welt 
whatever, and but slight evidence of a seam. Full-regular made articles 
always represent the best as well as the most expensive grades of knitted 
goods. [See Hosiery and Knit Goods]. 

Fur. Hair, wool, and fur are slender filaments or thread-like fibers 
issuing out of the pores of the skins of animals, and all partaking of the 
same general nature, such as flexibility, elasticity and tenacity. Fur, how- 
ever, is distinguished from wool by its greater fineness and softness, and 
hair from wool by its straightness and stiffness. Certain animals have a 
covering of fur upon their skins underneath a longer covering called over 
hair. The term fur is not used indiscriminately for any kind of skin, but 
applies only to to the short fine hair next to the skin. The fur differs from 
the overhair in that it is soft, silky and downy; while the overhair is 
straight and comparatively rigid. In the raw state furs are called pelts. 
Few kinds of animals furnish a pelt of the correct weight and pliability 
without artificial assistance, and all of .them differ widely in texture, shade 
and fineness; it being these differences which determine their value. Furs 
naturally formed the first clothing of man. They were known to the 
Romans two thousand years ago, and from that time to the present day 
have maintained a high commercial value, and have frequently been used 
to mark social distinctions. The taste for really beautiful furs is never 



FUR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 155 

likely to die out. Good fur is akin to fine gems, and will always command 
admiration, respect and a proper price, but like them, its use must always * 
be restricted to the minority. Really good fur is but slightly higher now 
than it has ever been, and while fine fur can only be worn by persons who 
make pretensions to elegance, yet the ingenuity of manufacturers have 
triumphed over natural deficiencies to a certain extent, and skins that 
would not have been tolerated as trimmings formerly are now, owing to 
the improved processes to which they are subjected, transformed into very 
fair imitations of handsome furs. In some cases this is so cleverly man- 
aged that only adepts are able to discriminate between the real and the 
false when the goods are new; wear and tear, however, are infallible means 
of detection. To be sure there are those who inveigh against this "fraud," 
and talk with regret of the degeneracy of the times when rabbit-skin is 
made to assume in turn the tints of the sable, the otter, the fox and the 
seal, for the temptation of the unwary, but the general feeling is very dif- 
ferent, and the enlightened public looks with favor and not disdain at the 
growing popularization of cheap fur. It cannot but be gratifying to see 
almost every decently-dressed woman with a bit of fur somewhere about 
her person, if it be only a band about her throat, or a tiny muff to comfort 
her chilly hands. 

A brief account is given here of the most-used varieties of fur and 
skins, with some general remarks as to their average value and customary 
uses: 

Badger. — Overhair coarse, three to four inches long, black with silver 
spots, fur wooly; used for robes and brushes. Value of prime $1 to $1.25. 

Bears.— Black, $12 to $28; cubs and yearlings $5 to $12. Grizzly, $10 
to $15. Brown, $10 to $14; used for robes. 

Beavers. — Overhair three inches long, of grey color, with reddish- 
brown ends. Fur thick and fine, of a silvery-gray hue or delicate light- 
brown; used in every form and fashion. Best are from Labrador; value of 
beaver fur $4 to $8.25 per pound ; castor beaver $4 to $6 per pound. There 
was a time in the early history of British America when beaver skins 
were bought from the natives by the Hudson's Bay Company, at the regu- 
lar price of fourteen skins for a gun, seven for a pistol, two for a shirt or 
one pair of stockings, one for a comb or twelve needles, etc., less than a 
hundredth part of their real value; all other fur-bearing skins belonging to 
that country were rated by that of the beaver. 

Chinchilla. — Overhair and fur of equal length, and like wool may be 
spun and woven; color gray and black mixed. Best are from Peru; used 
for muffs, boas and borders on garments, but never for overcoats; value 
from $1 to $3 per skin. 

Ermine. — Fur soft and pure white with tip of tail jet black. Best are 
from Siberia; used for muffs, garments and linings; value variable, froifl 
fifteen cents to $1.50 per skin. 



156 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FUR 

Fisher. — Fur fine; color black or gray. Best are from British America, 
value from $3 to $8 per skin. 

Catskin Fur. — The fur of the wild cat, especially that of Hungary, is 
quite valuable. It is of a brownish grey, mottled and spotted with black. 
Being soft and durable it is employed chiefly for cloak linings and robes for 
carriages. The domestic cat of Holland is bred for its fur, being fed on 
fish and carefully tended until the coat has arrived at its full perfection, 
when the fur is frequently dyed in imitation of sable. American catskin 
fur is not so valuable, the wild variety being valued at fifty cents to $1.00 
per skin and the domestic or house cat at five to ten cents. 

Fox, Silver. — Overhair thick and fine, three inches long, varying in 
color from a pale silver to a darker hue; fur fine and curly. Its beauty 
places it ahead of all fancy furs. The choicest are from Labrador; used 
for muffs, boas, trimmings, and for garments by the rich; value $50 to $150 
per skin. The skins of red foxes are valued at $1.50 to $2 per skin; cross 
fox $4 to $8; gray fox 50 cents to $1. 

Marten, American. — Overhair fine and flowing, one to two inches long; 
fur close and thick; color of the best is of a dark coffee brown, of the 
poorest a pale yellow. The best are from Labrador, always a choice and 
valued pelt, value from 80 cents to $2.50 

Buffalo Skins.— In 1880 buffalo robes could be bought for $6 to $8, but 
they are becoming extinct, and now bring $30 to $40 each. This price 
makes them too expensive for the trade. They have been supplanted by 
wolf skins which are expensive, and various goat skin robes for the cheaper 
buyers. China goat, especially, is becoming a popular skin for the manu- 
facture of medium grades of carriage robes. Near Garden City, Kansas, 
there is a large ranch devoted solely to the propagation of the buffalo. 
These animals, however, are not raised for their skins, but merely for 
menageries and museums. 

Lynx. — Fur fine; color gray or hoary, with clouded spottings; value 
of prime $3 to $3.50. Best are from British America. 

Mink, American. — This valuable fur vies with the marten in elegance 
of luster. The choicest are of a blue-black shade that is always admired 
in furs. The best are from Maine and Labrador. It is most abundant in 
the Middle and Northwestern states. Value of latter 75 cents to $2.00; of 
former from $2.50 to $3.50. 

Muskrat. — Overhair coarse and light brown; fur fine, thick and silky. 
A well known fur in the United States. Available for a great variety of 
purposes, notably in the manufacture of men's fur caps, and as a hatter's 
fur. The fur from the belly of the muskrat used for making men's fur 
hats, sells for $2 per pound. The price of the raw skins, however, fluctu- 
ates greatly; the annual catch varying from three to five millions. The 
usual price of prime varies from 15 to 50 cents. A variety of black musk- 
rats from Delaware and Maryland fetches double these prices. 

Musquash. — Same as muskrat. 



FUR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 157 

Nutria. — Overhair coarse and rigid; fur short and fine. From South 
America, in size and value between the beaver and the muskrat. The 
pelts are too often unsound, and hence the value of the fur is chiefly for 
hats; value of prime fur $3 per pound. 

Opossom. — Overhair coarse; fur short and medium fine; value 5 cents 
to 25 cents. 

Otter. — Color brown; found in all northern countries; best comes 
from Labrador. Value of prime $5 to $10. 

Otter, Sea. — Overhair exceedingly fine, extending but little beyond 
the fur, which is close, thick and silky. The general color is a deep liver 
brown, everywhere silvered or frosted with the hoary tips of the longer 
stiff hairs; these, however, are removed when the skin is dressed for com- 
mercial purposes. Found only in the Aleutian islands and Alaska, where 
five thousand half-civilized natives depend upon sea-otter catching for 
obtaining a living. The choicest skins are almost exclusively used by the 
nobilily of Russia; value of prime $100 to $500. 

Rabbit, Hare, and Coney. — Used, for an infinite variety of purposes, 
and especially in the manufacture of felt hats and fur caps. In trade 
technically termed " Coney." 

Sable, Russian. — A European variety of the marten, both of which 
belong to the weasel family. The skin is held in high estimation by the 
upper tendom of Russia; in color a rich bluish-black shade. The caprices 
of fashion have at times set wholly fictitious values upon the desirable 
shades of this fur, values not recognized by professional furriers. Best 
and darkest colored come from Siberia and Northern Russia, valued some- 
times as high as $150 per skin. 

Sealskin. — See Sealskin. 

Skunk. — Overhair fine, three inches long; in color dark-brown, black 
and white; fur thick, glossy and flowing. Many have two white stripes 
more or less broad, extending from the head to the tail. It is now easy to 
deodorize the skin, and the fur has become a popular one in all countries. 
The best are from New York and Ohio, value from $1 to $1.50; poor grades 
twenty-five to fifty cents. 

Wolf. — The largest are from British America, and northern portions of 
the United States, chiefly grey-brown in color, with long, coarse, flowing 
overhair; mainly used in making robes and rugs. Northwestern wolf 
skins are valued at $3 to $5; southwestern seventy-five cents to $2.50; 
prairie, seventy-five cents to $1.50. 

Wolverene. — Overhair long and shaggy, similar to the coat of a bear, 
fur short and wooly; color blackish brown. It is the largest variety of the 
weasel family, being from two to three feet in length. When several 
skins are sown together the fur forms elegant hearth and carriage rugs, 
value $3 to $4. 

Furs are dyed in a variety of ways to make them uniform in color, and 
adapt them to the fashion and taste of the time. Ordinarily this is a cheap 



158 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. FUR 

and easy process, only becoming an art when employed upon fine skins, 
from which the overhair has been first removed by "plucking," leaving the 
fur alone on the skin to receive the dyestuff. Among these are the skins 
of the muskrat, beaver, otter, and especially the seal; the last having re- 
ceived careful attention and study by dyers, as its entire value depends 
upon the success of the dyeing process. Great care is necessary to prepare 
the dye of suitable strength, and to infuse the coloring matter into the fur 
without allowing too much of it to reach the skin, whereby its wearing quali- 
ties might be ruined. There are fur manufactories in all the large cities 
of the United States, turning out vast quantities annually. St. Paul has 
for fifty years been an important fur market, and at present manufactures 
fur of all kinds, from a child's muff to the costliest seal garment. To this 
is added the making of mittens, gloves and articles of a similar kind. 
Another branch of the manufacture carried on at St. Paul is that of making 
fur overcoats. In 1891 the business of three factories at this point amounted 
to $1,200,000. In making garments fur is never cut with scissors. The 
marks of the pattern are made with chalk upon the skin-side, and then cut 
with a sharp knife, not letting it cut quite through at first, and then pulling 
the piece apart, thus finishing the cut very delicately so as not to spoil the 
fur. The use of scissors would cut the fur on the outside in spite of the ut- 
most precaution. When it is all cut the edges to be sewed are brought 
together and moistened, and sewed overhand with a waxed cotton thread. 
Silk cuts the skin. All kinds of fur are cut and sewed in the same way. 
[See Sealskin, Hats.] 

Fur Beaver. A term applied in recent years to a variety of heavy, 
napped woolen cloth used exclusively for men's fine overcoats. The cloth 
is double-woven, with the warp in the center and a weft on each surface, 
made of extremely soft, fine wool, such as lamb's-wool or merino. The face 
is finished with a straight flowing nap, not being rolled into tufts as in Chin- 
chilla, but brushed straight and all lying in one direction. The principal 
advantage of Fur Beaver is that being woven of extremely fine wool, it 
produces a light fabric, thus preserving great warmth with very little 
weight. It has a soft, almost oily feel, similar to beaver fur, and is often 
finished with a short nap on the back. 

Furbelow (fur '-be-low). [From fur and below.'] A puffed and puck- 
ered adornment on a dress or petticoat; any elaborate ornament or em- 
bellishment of a ladies' costume. 

Fustian (fus'-tyan). [From Fustat, a suburb of Cario, Egypt, whence 
the stuff first came.] In present use a stout, twilled cotton fabric, espec- 
ially that which has a short nap, variously called corduroy, moleskin, 
beaverteen, thickset, etc., according to the way it is finished. Among the 
various trades which anciently distinguished Barcelona, Spain, one of the 
most famous and useful was that of cotton manufacture. These art isans 
prepared and spun cotton for the numerous stuffs used in those times, 



GAI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 159 

principally for the manufacture of cotton sail cloth, and strong fustians 
for sailors' breeches — for Barcelona was for more than 500 years a station of 
the Spanish Armadas. These early fustians was then, as now, of cotton, 
or of cotton weft and linen warp. In the 13th and 14th centuries priests' 
robes and women's dresses were made of it, there being both cheap and 
costly varieties. It appears to have been worn where strength and dura- 
bility were required. Through the invention and adoption of other fabrics 
its use has gradually been confined to laborers and servants. [See CORDU- 
ROY, Moleskin, Beaverteen, Thickset.] 

Fuzz. Fine downy particles, as the loose fibres on the surface of 
cloth, or separated from it by friction. 



o 

Gaiter. [From Fr. guetre, a cloth covering for the ankle and upper 
portion of the foot.] Originally a kind of shoe, consisting partly of cloth, 
covering the ankle. At present a shoe of similar form made either of 
leather or cloth, generally with an insertion of elastic on each side. The 
term is also applied to a covering of cloth for the ankle and lower portion 
of the leg, spreading out at the bottom over the top of the shoe; also called 
overgaiter and spatter dash. 

Galligaskins (gal-i-gas ' -kins). Leather guards worn on the legs by 
sportsmen and equestrians. Formerly, in the 16th century the term was 
applied to a fashion of trunk hose, also called gregs, Venetians and gas- 
kins. 

"Every good housewife made the clothes of her husband and family, and even the 
good frou of Van Twiller himself thought it no disparagement to cut out her husband's 
linsey-woolsey galligaskin s." — Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 175. 

Galloon (gal-oon'). [From It. gallone, finery,] Originally, worsted 
lace, especially a closely -woven lace like a narrow ribbon or tape for bind- 
ing. In modern use a trimming similar to the above, of wool, silk, tinsel, 
cotton, or a combination of any of these; also, a kind of gold or silver lace 
with a continuous even edge used on uniforms, liveries and band caps. 

Galoshes (ga-loshes ' ). [From Sp. galocha, wooden shoe.] A kind of 
clog or patten worn in the middle ages as a protection against wet, and 
common, because of the fact that in those days shoes for ordinary wear 
were made of thin materials, such as cloth, silk and the like. In present 
use a general term for overshoes and rubbers. 

Gambroon. A twilled cloth of worsted and cotton or linen and cotton 
used for summer trousers; also a twilled linen used for linings. 

Garment. An article of clothing, as a coat, a gown, or a wrap. 

Garter. An elastic band or other fastening to keep the stocking in 
place on the leg; more particularly a band passing around the leg either 



160 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GAR 

above or below the knee. It is not known when garters were first worn. 
Necessity in this case must have been the mother of invention, and garters 
are probably of the same date as the hose which they kept up. The ordi- 
nary woman's garter is a cheap and insignificant article, but for those who 
can afford them the fine qualities range all the way from silk elastic with 
oxidized silver clasps at $3 per pair, to those with gold buckles adorned 
with countless designs and monograms up to silk bands ornamented with 
clasps of diamonds, sapphires, rubies and even pearls, costing from $150 to 
$500 a pair. Actresses and favorite dancers in large cities especially affect 
these luxurious fastenings. According to a common English legend the 
Order of the Garter originated in 1350 in the following manner: At a 
court ball in London King Edward's mistress, commonly supposed to be 
the Countess of Salisbury, allowed her garter to drop upon the floor near 
the king, who, taking it up, observed some of the knights and courtiers to 
smile as if they thought he had not obtained this favor merely by accident, 
upon which the king called out, "Ho7ii soit qui mal y ftense." (Shamed 
be he who evil thinks of it.) This trifling incident divided the king's 
friends into two factions, finally giving rise to the Order of the Garter, the 
highest order of knighthood in Great Britain, consisting of a perpetual 
organization of the reigning king or queen, the prince of Wales and fifty 
others of the bluest blood among the royalty. 

Gauntlet. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, the metal covering 
for the hand, attached to the iron armor worn by warriors, was called the 
"gauntlet." This was at first mitten-shaped, but afterwards separated to 
contain the fingers, and continued gradually to change until the gauntlet 
was made of leather with iron pieces sewed on the palms, and detached 
from the arm covering. The word is derived from Anglo-Saxon gauntus, 
signifying in its general sense, a glove; while.g'ante/et is the present French 
term for glove. Gauntlets are now distinguished by being a long, stout 
glove, for use in riding and driving, loosely covering the wrist and lower 
part of the arm. 

Gassing. The process by which cloth that is to be finished with a 
smooth surface, as well as lace and yarns, is run through a gas flame at a 
speed carefully regulated so that the flame shall burn off the loose fuzz and 
filaments. [See Singeing.] 

Gassing-frame. An apparatus in which yarns are run off from one 
bobbin to another and carried through gas flames in the operation of 
"gassing." A stop-motion is used to draw the yarn out of the flame in case 
it knots and stops, and thus prevents it from burning off. 

Gauze. [Said to have been named after the place of its origin, Gaza, 
in Palestine, a city known from ancient days as an important cloth weaving 
center]. A very thin, transparent fabric made of silk, silk and cotton, or 
silk and linen. It is either plain, or brocaded in patterns with silk. Al- 
though gauzes are occasionally made of thread, the name has always in 



GEN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 161 

times past signified a silk fabric. Common gauze is formed by the warp 
being twisted somewhat like a rope during the operation of weaving, by 
which the structure of the cloth acquires a resemblence to lace. The 
texture is always open, flimsy and transparent, but from the turning of the 
warp it possesses an uncommon degree of strength and tenacity in propor- 
tion to the quantity of material which it contains. Gauze is dressed or 
"sized" while held in a stretched condition, the dressing being dexterously 
and uniformly applied by a series of spraying nozzles, actuated by steam 
or air jets. The process of drying is carried on in chambers heated to a 
proper temperature by steam pipes; the final operation consisting in pass- 
ing the fabric along a network of tapes to the winding of folding appa- 
ratus. [See Empress Gauze, Gossamer.] 

Genappe (je-nap'). [From Genappe, Belgium, where first produced.] 
A worsted yarn which, because of its smoothness, can be conveniently 
combined with silk, and is thus well adapted for braids, fringes, etc. 

Germantown Yarn. [From having been first made at Germantown, 
Pa., which city at present constitutes the 22nd ward of Philadelphia,] A 
coarse heavy woolen yarn, extensively used for knitting fancy articles, 
especially heavy scarfs, hoods, mittens and the like. It has been super- 
seded to some extent in recent years by German Knitting Worsted. * 

German Knitting Worsted. A strong durable yarn made of "worsted," 
that is, wool prepared by the combing process. [See Wool, Worsted.] 

Gimp. [From Fr. guipure, to whip round with silk.] A flat trimming 
made by twisting silk or worsted threads round a silk foundation of wire; 
more or less open in design; used for borders of curtains and furniture 
trimmings, ladies' dresses, etc. 

Gimped Embroidery, A kind of raised embroidery made with a pad- 
ding of inferior material which is entirely concealed by the silk or beads 
whipped round it; similar to passamenterie (which see). 

Gingham. [A term derived from the town of its early manufacture, 
Guinghamp, France, in the department of Cotes-du-Nord]. A close, 
stout, plain (untwilled) cotton cloth, woven into yarn-dyed checks and 
stripes of two or more colors. It differs from calico in the circumstance 
that its colors are woven in instead of being printed on the cloth, and from 
sateen for the same reason and also in not being twilled. In the case of 
umbrella ginghams the whole piece is woven of yarn of one color. Under 
the general term of gingham a great variety of materials are manufac- 
tured, the trade distinction of "gingham" being now to a large extent 
superseded by other terms. Seersucker gingham was originally a thin 
linen fabric made in the East Indies, having blue stripes alternating with 
white ones. Zephyr gingham, as the name indicates, is an extremely soft 
and pliable variety, woven of fine yarns, and finished devoid of " sizing," 
frequently found in small checks and plaids. Madras gingham is the name 

applied to a very superior kind, in which the pattern is made to imitate the 
11 



162 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GIN 

waved lines and simple embroidery work of Madras cloth. Scotch, and 
French ginghams are merely superior qualities of domestic goods. Toile- 
du-Nord is a French phrase for Cloth of the North. Small, square-checked 
ginghams are designated as " two-by-two," " four-by-four," etc., which has 
reference to the size of the checks: the two-by-two having two white 
threads intersected by two threads of some dark color every alternate time; 
the four-by-four having fotir threads of each color, and the six-by-six six 
threads of a color crossing each other, and so on. Standard ginghams 
weigh about six and one-quarter yards to the pound, and count from sixty 
to seventy threads per inch. 

On leaving the loom ginghams present a very crude appearance. It is 
in a great measure the finish that lends to a piece of gingham its chief 
attractiveness. Before finishing, however, the cloth is carefully inspected 
and any pieces that contain imperfectly woven spots are laid aside and 
finished separately, to be classed as "seconds." The cloth is then run 
through a starching machine adjusted so as to supply the amount of starch 
necessary to produce the required degree of stiffness. This part of the 
process requires great care as on the degree of stiffness the satisfactory 
nature of the finish will largely depend. The wetting of the cloth in the 
starching process has a tendency to shrink the cloth, and to counteract this 
and to produce an even width throughout each piece, the goods are placed 
on a tentering machine. This consists of two parallel endless chains trav- 
eling over a platform several yards in length. Clamps on each chain clasp 
the edges of the cloth, and by the aid of small pins to prevent its slipping, 
hold it out to the desired width. If the cloth has been dried after the 
starching process, it is necessary to steam it while on the tentering ma- 
chine, so as to moisten the fabric and give it elasticity, but as the cloth 
travels slowly over the platform it encounters a heated surface and is grad- 
ually dried, while the chains holding it apart prevent any shrinkage. To 
produce a glossy surface the cloth is then passed between heated iron 
rollers, which act in the same manner as the flat-iron in the hands of a 
laundress. This process is called calendering. Of course, attention must 
be paid to the amount of calendering the goods receive. If too highly cal- 
endered the cloth is apt to appear too light and flimsy and if not sufficiently 
calendered it may appear harsh and rough. The amount of starching and 
calendering, however, largely depends on the purposes for which the goods 
may be intended, a specially hard and glossy finish being occasionally 
called for. When the calendering has been completed each piece of cloth 
is rolled upod a board by an automatic machine which, by the number of 
revolutions made, registers the number of yards in the piece. The work 
of banding and ticketing is then performed and the gingham is ready to be 
packed in cases for delivery. 

Girdle. The ancient use of the girdle was to confine to the waist the 
long flowing garments then worn, and in some countries is still in use, worn 
by both men and women. It was once an article of universal wear, and ac- 



GIR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 163 

cordingly varied in richness with the position of the wearer. Some were 
simple leather bands with one end passed through a hole and fastened 
round the other; some again were of great width and costly materials, 
lavishly overlaid with jewelry and precious stones, furnished with a costly 
ring for the passage of a tie, and the ends long and richly ornamented. The 
making of girdles, which included sword-belts, became in England a dis- 
tinct craft. The Girdlers' Company was incorporated in 1499, and in 1568 
the Pinners and Wire Drawers were incorporated with them. All kinds of 
things were carried at the girdle — long embroidered pockets, scissors, and 
keys by women; daggers, poinards, penner and ink-horn, knives or books by 
men, according to their calling. From the common custom of carrying the 
purse at the girdle comes the old term "cut purse," and the voluntary sur- 
render of the girdle became by custom a legal transfer of the effects of a 
bankrupt to his creditors. "May my girdle break if I fail" was an old say- 
ing of imprecation against false promises, because the purse hung to it. 
It was also regarded as a symbol of continence and self-restaint. 

"The girdle gave the virtue of chaste love 
And wifehood true, to all that did it bear: 

But whosoever contrary doth prove, 
Might not the same about her middle wear, 
But it would loosen, or else asunder tear." — Spenser. 

At present the girdle is frequently used in women's dress, and in mili- 
tary costume, commonly called a hilt or sash. The term is also applied to 
a belt of tape or ribbon used to keep up the stockings, as a substitute for 
garters. It is not improbable in the case that tights or pantellas become 
universally popular that girdles for the use mentioned will cause the garter 
to fall into desuetude. 

Glace (gla-sa ' ). [From Fr. glace, iced, glazed]. In trade a term signi- 
fying fabrics or articles with a glossy, lustrous finish. Changeable colors 
or "shot" silks are termed glace silks. Glace gloves are those finished with 
a luster or polish, in contradistinction to the seude, or soft finished goods. 

Glass Cloth. A fine linen fabric, usually woven with a slight open 
pattern of colored threads, like gingham, used originally as a towel for 
drying fine porcelain, glass, etc., and now employed as a background for 
embroidery. 

Glassing. A method of finishing fine kid leather, to produce a per- 
manent gloss, by rubbing it with a ball of polished plate-glass. 

Glazing. See Calender. 

Glengarry Cap. [So named from Glengarry, a valley in Scotland]. 
A Scotch cap of wool, either woven in one piece or cut out of cloth and 
sewed together. It has erect sides, a hollow or crease at the top, and 
diminishes in height toward the back, where the band is slit or parted and 
fitted with a pair of short ribbons, which are usually crossed and permitted 
to hang down. It is the typical cap of the Scotch Highlander. 



164 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GLO 

Gloria. A fabric the warp of which is silk and the weft either of 
cotton, wool or mohair. In the process of weaving glorias, the silk is so 
thrown up that the surface has a soft silken luster, while the fineness of the 
weft mingled with it gives the fabric a firm and even appearance. Silk- 
and-cotton glorias are used largely in the manufacture of umbrellas and 
men's "silk" shirts, as well as for ladies' dresses. 

Glove. The antiquity of gloves is very great. They have been known 
and worn from the remote age of the world, and doubtless antedate history, 
for the earliest literature alludes to them. Gloves were, in 1416, often set 
with precious stones, and sufficiently valuable to be left as legacies. They 
have ever been an accessory to the dress of royalty, and ornamented with 
pearls and precious stones are yet deemed fitting ensigns of imperial 
dignities. In times past they were so intimately connected with kingly 
power that monarchs were invested with authority by the delivery of a 
a glove. At the coronation of English sovereigns the ceremony of chal- 
lenging by a glove is still observed. When Henry IV was crowned, a 
knight armed for the wager of battle, threw down his glove to any man 
who should dare to maintain that King Henry was not a lawful sovereign. 
Later the King's champion has been accustomed to make this challenge 
with a glove at each coronation, as was the case at the crowning of Queen 
Victoria. It was formerly a proverb that for a glove to be good, and well 
made, three kingdoms must contribute to it. Spain to dress the leather, 
France to cut it and England to sew it. But of late, in the manufacture of 
ladies' and gents kid gloves especially, France has appropriated the func- 
tions of the other two — they now having the advantage in point of dressing 
and sewing, as much as of cutting. The greatest manufacturing center in 
the world for kid gloves is Grenoble, in the south of France, where many 
thousand persons are engaged in the factories. This town has become thus 
famous owing to the especial qualities of the water for the dyeing; and also 
to its proximity to those countries which produce an abundance of goats. 
About 1,200,000 dozen pairs, (equal to 28,800,000 single gloves) are made 
annually at Grenoble, to accomplish which 25,000 persons are employed 
— 4,000 men and 21,000 women and children. Of the skins furnished 95 
per cent are said to be kid and 5 per cent, lamb, and 9,600,000 kids are re- 
quired for the factory at Grenoble every year. The kids are so small that 
but three gloves can be cut, on an average, from one skin. It is stated that 
any first-class factory at Grenoble can supply 300 different tints in gloves; 
and that from the gory fingers of the slaughterer to the more or less 
dainty fist of the purchaser, the glove passes through something like 200 
hands. The process a kid glove undergoes is not only interesting reading, 
but is necessary knowledge for a salesman. The first thing to do is, of 
course, to remove the hair from the raw skins as they are received by the 
factory. For this purpose lime is used, they being immersed from a fort- 
night three weeks in pits containing water and lime. The skins are Con- 
stantly turned and shifted about by workmen armed with long iron tongs 



GLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 165 

and when taken out it is found that the lime has loosened the cuticle of the 
skin, thus rendering- the removal of the hair a more easy matter. From the 
lime-pits the skins are taken to the unhairing room, from where they are 
stretched on a sort of wooden# block, and are scraped with a blunt two- 
handled knife. This removes the hair. They are now taken in hand by 
the "flesher," who cuts off the tail, the headpiece, and such portions of 
adipose matter as may still adhere to the skin. This waste is useful for 
the manufacture of glue and gelatine, for which purpose it is employed. 
The skins now pass on to the "scudder," who removes any hair that may 
may have hitherto escaped the knives of the previous operators. They 
are next left to soak in clear water to remove all traces of the lime, and 
from thence they are placed in a mixture of warm water and wheat-bran, 
which not only removes any fleshy impurity from the skins, but also renders 
them soft and supple. Kid skins are not tanned like ordinary leather, 
such as is used for making boots and harness, by means of oak-bark, but 
are immersed in a revolving "drum," which contains a mixture composed of 
yolk of eggs, wheaten flour, alum and salt; and so enormous is the con- 
sumption of the former ingredients that at one factory in France no fewer 
than 4 000 eggs are needed every day. The skins are allowed to remain in 
this costly paste for rather more than an hour, the "drum" being kept re- 
volving by means of machinery. They are next taken out, and removed 
to the cellars for the night, and from thence are conveyed on the following 
day to the drying room, where they are subjected to a temperature varying 
from 140 to 160 degrees. The attendants in this room are clad in a garb 
similar to that of the peasantry of India, so intense is the heat; but they 
manage, nevertheless to enjoy good health, and sometimes even to increase 
in weight. Each skin is hung separately on hooks, and thus they dry very 
quickly. This process leaves them somewhat hard, and they are next 
"seasoned" or "sammied" with cold water, and then stretched backwards 
and forwards over upright knives, shaped like a half-moon. After being 
wetted again, they are "shaved," a process requiring great dexterity. This 
is accomplished by means of specially-constructed knives which remove 
the under-flesh. The skins are now coated with a composition of flour, oil 
and the yolk of eggs, which renders them soft and pliable. The skin in 
this operation requires the most careful handling, for it has now become a 
soft, white membrane, very fine and silky. They are then conveyed to the 
dye-house, being by this time ready for the preliminary operations of dyeing. 
Before being dyed the skins are trodden under the soft bare feet of boys 
for several hours in water. This process throws out of them anything 
which would be opposed to the action of the dye. Having been rinsed, the 
skins are now moistered with more yolk of eggs, and are allowed to rest a 
day before they are dyed by the workmen, who taking a brush dipped in 
ammonia, spread it over the skins, and then apply several coatings of the 
dye. This he softly pats into the grain, adding a touch here and a touch 
there until the requisite amount is laid on, One secret of the dyer's art is 



166 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GLO 

what constitutes just the right amount of dye to put on, as it must cover 
the skin and produce a clear color, yet not soak to the inside. The skins 
which have been tanned and dyed, are now subjected to a process known 
as "grounding," the object of which is to remove all roughness, and render 
them thinner and more supple. They are next sorted according to their 
quality and size, and are passed on to the cutters, who cut them into the 
several detached parts of gloves. This operation may seem to the un- 
skilled very easy, but it is not. It requires great judgment, for the work- 
man has to allow for the natural "stretch" of different parts of the skin. 
The finished skins having been selected and mapped out by the sorters, 
and pieced out by the cutters, are put over a frame looking like a deformed 
or skeleton glove. These frames are so made that they represent the 
whole glove laid out unsewn. The gloves, with the thumbs duly fitted and 
put together, are placed in a press, after which they are sent to be punched 
out by means of machinery. The cuttings left by the punching machine 
are picked up with scissors by girls who are employed making the four- 
chettes, or side-pieces of the fingers, which are also cut out by the machine- 
punch. It is of course necessary that the side-pieces should match ex- 
actly with the other parts, and for this the most skilled girls are employed 
to choose them. The seams are sewed together with perfect regularity by 
placing the edges to be united between the jaws of a vice, the holding 
edge of which terminates in fine brass saw-teeth, one-twelfth of an inch 
long, between each of which the needle is passed in successive stitches, by 
hand, and in this way a neat, uniform stitch is secured. It requires one 
hour to cut and examine a pair of gloves and one hour to sew them, thus 
making two hours the length of time necessary for the actual making of a 
pair of 4-button kid gloves. In France the work of stitching gloves is 
done chiefly by hand, one firm alone employing 4,500 women and girls for 
this branch of the work. Machine-stitching, however, is to a small extent 
utilized in the manufacture of heavy gloves, and can be recognized on ac- 
count of its always being the regulation "button-hole" stitch. When the 
sewing is completed, kid gloves are placed in moist linen cloths and beaten, 
by which they are rendered softer and more flexible, after which they are 
pressed and ironed. They are then arranged in dozens, and being envel- 
oped in paper bands, are packed in card-board boxes ready to be des- 
patched from the factory. Of ordinary kid gloves there are ten different 
sizes for ladies — 6% to 8; fourteen different sizes for gentlemen — 6|^ to 10; 
for misses the sizes range from 5>£ to &% ', and for boys, the cadet sizes 
range from 5 }4 to 1%. These latter have shorter fingers than the corres- 
ponding numbers in men's sizes. An old French glove-maker aptly asserts 
that "a perfect glove is as soft as a baby's cheek, finer than silk, and as 
elastic as rubber." Kid gloves are finished either "glace" or "suede." By 
glace is meant the bright polished finish which has long been in vogue. 
Suede, or "undressed" signifies gloves finished by removing the thin, 



GLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 167 

almost transparent outer layer of the skin, by simply peeling or shaving it 
off, leaving the glove undressed and lusterless in appearance. 

The raising of kids for their skins is a leading industry among the 
French, Spanish and Italian mountaineers. Softness, delicacy of texture 
and freedom from blemish are the principal factors in the value of kid 
skins, and to secure these great pains are taken. As soon as the young 
goat begins to eat grass the value of his skin begins to decline, for with a 
grass diet his skin becomes harder in texture, and its chief merit vanishes. 
It is, therefore, from the hour of its birth kept closely penned, not only to 
prevent it from eating grass, but also to secure the skin from accidental 
injury from scratches and bruises. When the kids have reached a certain 
age at which the skins are in the best condition for the use of the glover, 
they are killed, and the hides sold to travelling hawkers, through whom 
they reach the great center of the glove industry of France. 

The superior quality of these French skins, due to climatic causes, is 
what has given France her supremacy in the manufacture of the finest 
grades of real kid gloves in the world; a supremacy that will doubtless 
be long maintained, inasmuch as foreign factories are obliged to rest con- 
tent with the second and third-rate skins. It will hardly be necessary to 
inform the reader that the term "kid," as applied to low grades of ladies 
gloves is a misnomer. If all the animals which contribute their skins to 
the manufacture of the cheap qualities of kid gloves could be re-incar- 
nated, it would be the most remarkable menagerie ever exhibited, 
and few known animals would be missing. Even the water has been 
searched and an attempt made to use eel skins. Rat skins have been 
experimented with. Colt skins from Buenas Ayres, sheepskins from the 
Cape of Good Hope, ox hides from Calcutta, antelope skins from the Rocky 
Mountains, and Mocha sheepskins from Aden on the Red sea, are perhaps 
the staples; but moose, musk ox, llama, kangaroo, monkey, peccary, water 
hog and many others lose their identity when fashioned into the glove 
retailed at one dollar per pair. When what is called a "kid glove "feels 
unusally stout, it may be considered highly probable that it is only an 
imitation. It must consequently be understood that all good kid is reason- 
ably thin, extremely elastic, and incomparably finer in texture (grain) than 
any other leather which can be lain alongside of it. 

Fabric Gloves are made in cashmere, all-silk, taffeta (silk and linen), 
lisle and cotton (Berlin). The greater part of fabric gloves are made of a 
knitted fabric generally about 70 inches wide. The machinery employed 
in the manufacture is very ingenious, the different parts being put together 
by machines made for the purpose, similar to the methods adopted for the 
making of kid gloves. In cutting, a number of folds of the material are 
placed one upon another and a knife or punch at one cut takes out of the 
cloth a piece of the shape requirrd, which of course includes the fingers as 
well as the part which covers the hand. These punches are made of sizes 
to correspond to the usual glove numbers. These pieces are then put to- 



168 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GLO 

gether and sewn on a machine designed especially for this work. Previous 
to sewing together, the "points," as the silk strips down the back are called 
are embroidered in by another kind of machine. The glove is then ready, 
for the dyer, if it has been made in the white, and after receiving the re- 
quisite coloring it is sent to the finishers to be dressed, banded, and boxed, 
after which it is ready for shipment. Gloves made and finished in this 
manner are what are known in trade as "town-made." There is, however, 
another mode of manufacturing fabric gloves on a machine similar to that 
used for producing circular hose, and these are known in trade as "frame- 
made." Frame gloves, which are seamless, are not very largely used, ex- 
cept in the best grades of spun silk and lisle. Fabric gloves are now 
woven with double finger-tips, which consists merely of an extra thread in 
the cloth that renders the glove three-fold at the tips. It is an English 
patent, and has been introduced into Germany and the United States. At 
one time when very cheap skins were used in making so-called kid gloves, 
the use of fabric gloves fell off somewhat, but as these cheap skins wore 
very badly and gave poor results, a reversion of sentiment occurred, and at 
present there is no demand for kid gloves below a certain grade. Ex- 
perience having proven that fabric gloves can be made much cheaper and 
look and wear much better, they have crowded them out of the market. 
Chemnitz, Germany, is the center of the fabric glove manufacture. Amer- 
ica takes the greatest amount. England once made the greatest number 
of such gloves, but has been distanced by Germany, on account of the 
lower price of labor, yet the English silk Milanese gloves still hold pre- 
eminence as the best made and are principally used for fine trade only. In 
Germany whole districts are given up to fabric glove making, and it ranks 
next in point of magnitude to that of hosiery. The industry is an attract- 
ive employment for women, as it is light, clean work, good pay, and can be 
taken to the home, thus enabling housekeepers to use their spare time to 
advantage, often earning as much as the man of the house. The manu- 
facture of fabric gloves in this country with the exception of silk and taffeta 
mitts, is not very large. In mitts, the American makers control the market. 
[See Mitts.] 

Heavy Gloves. The leather employed by glovers in the manufacture 
of heavy grades of gloves is mainly prepared from the skins of the sheep, 
deer, goat and calf. Great progress has been made in recent years in 
tanning sheep and lamb skins, they being now rendered so elegant and so 
durable as to be practically indistinguishable from goat leather in looks or 
wear. Buckskin gloves are prepared from the skins of deer, by the pro- 
cess of "chamoying." [See Leather.] It is the closest grained and con- 
sequently the strongest and best wearing glove that is made. Its elasticity, 
though trifling, is sufficient. Plymouth buck, which signifies buckskin 
which is tanned and colored, originated at Plymouth as did also the 
pattern of gloves called Plymouth, with seams up the back. Saranac 
tanned skins originated in Littleton, N. H. Gloves bearing this title 



GLO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 169 

are made of various leathers, buck, goat, calf sheep, mocha, or in fact 
almost any skin tanned yellow with the grain on. Nappa gloves are 
made at Nappa, California, from the skins of the mountain goat. Castor 
gloves have had quite a history. The word indicates the skin of the beaver, 
but the best French castor gloves were formerly made of thin deer skin, 
and were soft, durable, and expensive. Latterly shaved sheepskin was 
used, but the goods were unsatisfactory. These were in turn displaced by 
American castors, made of antelope skins from our western plains. Mocha 
castor gloves are made from both mocha leather and lambskin. Mocha 
is the name of an animal found in a wild state in Spain and Egypt. It is 
a cross-breed between a sheep and a goat. In preparing skins for the 
manufacture of castor gloves, the grain is first removed, then tanned and 
dyed in assorted colors, after which they are finished on a swift running 
emery wheel to make them smooth and velvety. Suede or undressed kid 'is 
made from mocha or lamb skins, and tanned on the wrong or flesh side of 
the skin. Dogskin gloves exist more in name than reality, as they never, 
except in rare instances, are made of the real canine cuticle. Most driving 
gloves are advertised, labeled, and sold as dogskin, but they are made of 
skins that no intelligent dog would ever recognize as belonging to one of 
his kind. It is impossible to properly tan the skin of a dog and remove the 
animal grease without producing a dry, ill feeling leather, which is suitable 
only for the coarsest of cartmen's gloves. This difficulty in dressing has 
never yet been overcome. Most gloves sent out as dogskin are made from 
lambskin, though the poorer qualities are shaved sheepskin. Schmaschen 
is a name that importers use to designate the different imported gloves that 
are shipped to this country. They are for the most part made of slunk 
lambskin or Italian lambskin shaved down sufficiently thin to answer for 
ladies' gloves. They are of inferior quality, being dry and papery, and 
often break. In the city of Gloversville, New York, there are 140 separate 
glove factories which manufacture about two thirds of the entire product 
of men's heavy gloves in the United States. Their annual output amounts 
to over $20,000,000. Johnstown, New York is the next city of importance 
in the manufacture of gloves, the amount of business done being $10,- 
000,000 annually. 

Gobelin dress fabric. A kind of large brocade, woven of wool and 
silk mixed. One of the peculiar features of this material is the peculiar 
coloring of them, which is always done in faded, delicate shades. The 
woven-in patterns are technically so perfect as to appear like embroidered 
work, while the ground of the fabric resembles the well-known Turkish 
shawl pattern. Multi-colored silk threads in relief closely cover the sur- 
face, which is intersected by large velvet or moire stripes. [See Gobelin 
Tapestry]. 

Gossamer (goz'-a-mer). [A contraction of "Godsummer," a name given 
by our superstitious ancestry to the fine filmy cobwebs which float in the 



170 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GOW 

air in summer time, so-called because these flying webs were considered as 
being the shreds and remnants of the Virgin Mary's shroud which she 
dropped to earth on her ascension to heaven.] A variety of gauze, softer 
and stronger than the ordinary kind, much used for veils. Also a thin, 
water-proof outer wrap, worn especially by women. [See Gauze.] 

Grown. [From Welsh gwn, signifying that which is stitched.] In a 
general sense the long habit of a man dedicated to acts of peace, as 
divinity, medicine, law. Any long upper garment; a woman's long night- 
garment in particular. 

drain. The side of leather from which the hair has been removed, 
showing the fibrous texture, in contradistinction from the flesh side. 

Grain Leather. Tanned and dressed horsehides, goatskins, etc., 
blacked on the grain side, used in the manufacture of coarse boots and 
shoes. 

Grass-bleaching. The process of bleaching cotton and linen fabrics by 
exposing them to the action of sunlight and moisture by spreading on the 
grass. Grass-bleaching is occasionally used in the clearing process for 
chintzes, cretonnes, and also for fine sheer linen. [See Crofting, Linen.] 

Grass-cloth. A heavy, buff-colored cotton muslin, used at present for 
children's underwear. China grass-cloth, a beautiful, fine fabric made from 
the fiber of an India nettle, is imported to this country in the form of hand- 
kerchiefs. The Chinese name for grass-cloth is hia pu, summer cloth. It 
was originally called grass cloth by foreigners at Canton, China, because it 
was assumed to be made of some sort of grass. 

Grass-embroidery. A variety made by several tribes of American 
Indians, the chief material for which is dried grass, or fibrous leaves resem- 
bling grass. 

Grass-linen. A fine grass-cloth. 

Grassing-. The exposing of linen cloth in fields to the influence of 
air, moisture and sunlight for the purpose of bleaching. 

Grenadine (gren-a-dene ' ). [From French grenadine, wrought silk for 
making lace.] A dress fabric woven in small square meshes or open work 
of coarse-like threads, very transparent. It is manufactured of cotton, 
silk, or wool, and their intermixtures. 

Grille (gre-lya'). [From French grille, a grating.] In lace, having a 
background consisting of bars or brides crossing open spaces; also said of 
the background itself. 

Grog-ram (grog ' -gram). A coarse fabric formerly in use, made 
originally of silk and mohair, afterward of silk and wool, and usually stif- 
fened with gum. [See Grosgrain.] 

Gros (gro). Thick; strong. A textile fabric stronger or heavier than 
others of the same material, 



GRO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 171 

Gros des Indus. A silk fabric having a stripe, more or lessbroad.either 
of the same or a different color, woven diagonally across the web. 

Gros des Naples. A stout, plain-woven silk dress fabric, woven of or- 
ganzine silk, in the weaving of which great care and labor is bestowed, 
hence one of the most durable of silk materials. 

Gros des Tours. A heavy corded black silk, used for mourning pur- 
poses. 

Gros-grain (gro' -grain). [From gros, thick, and grain, grain, showing 
conclusively the origin of the word and the manner of fabrics they should 
be]. A firm, close-woven, fine-corded or grained dress silk, finished with 
but a slight lustre. The earliest grosgrain fabrics were woven with a silk 
warp and a mohair weft, and were very coarse. These were known at dif- 
ferent times under the terms "grogram" and " silk mohair." [See Silk.] 

Guernsey (gern'-sy). [Named from having been first worn by the 
sailors inhabiting the island of Guernsey, in the English Channel]. A close- 
fitting, knitted woolen shirt, worn by seamen, sometimes called a guernsey- 
frock; similar to a cardigan jacket or jersey, except that it is a heavier and 
longer garment. 

Guipure (ge-pure'). A French word signifying vellum lace. "Vellum" 
means " parchment," and parchment is sheep-skin, tanned and bleached 
white fit for writing or printing on. " Cartisane " is another French word 
signifying a long thin strip of parchment or vellum rolled round and com- 
pletely covered with twisted silk. To produce Guipure lace, the old French 
lace-makers first formed the outlines of the intended pattern of these car- 
tisanes, they being held together at various points by stitches called 
"brides " or "bars," worked with the needle. These minute cords or car- 
tisanes were either arranged so as to touch one another, and be sewed to- 
gether often enough for solidity, or were attached in the form of a figure 
by the "brides." In later use the term guipure is applied to lace made in 
imitation of the ancient guipure, hence to any lace having no ground or 
mesh, but maintained by brides only; in this sense used very loosely. 
Cluny guipure siginifies modern lace or passamenterie, imitating that of the 
16th century, having a formal and even geometrical design and usually of 
rather large pattern. The term is applied to such work whether hand- 
made or machine-made. [See Lace.] 

Gunny. A strong and extremely coarse cloth manufactured chiefly in 
Bengal from jute, but to some extent in Madras and Bombay from sunn- 
hemp. It is also extensively manufactured in Dundee, Scotland. It is 
used for clothing by many poor people, but principally for bagging and 
the wrapping of large packages, as cotton bales, for which use large 
quantities are exported to the United States. In lower Bengal the manu- 
facture of this bagging is the great domestic industry of those ver-popu- 
lous districts. It pervades all classes, and gives occupation to men, 



172 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. GUN 

women and children. Boatmen employ themselves weaving it in their 
spare moments, as also do farmers, carriers, and even domestic ser- 
vants. It forms the never failing resource and occupation of that most 
humble, patient and despised of created beings, the Hindoo widow, saved 
by English law from sacrifice, but condemned by native opinion and cus- 
tom for the remainder of her days to sack-cloth and ashes, to the lowest 
domestic drudgery in the very household where once, perhaps, her will was 
law. Of recent years, however, large quantities of jute have been annually 
purchased by English and American companies, and shipped to Dundee, 
Scotland, and to the United States, where it is woven into gunny bagging. 
In this country it is made in several different qualities, and used for sugar, 
coffee, and rice sacks, burlaps, furniture wrapping, backing for floor oil 
cloths, and, most important of all, for wrapping the bales of cotton in the 
south. As each bale requires seven yards of gunny cloth, and the annual 
production of cotton in this country being between seven and eight million 
bales, the consumption of gunny for this purpose is very great. [See 
Jute.] 

Grutta-percha, [From Malay gutta, gum, and percha, the island from 
whence it was first obtained. The island is now known as Sumatra]. The 
juice of an evergreen tree common in the jungles of the Malay peninsula 
and archipelago. It is a yellowish, inodorous and tasteless substance, 
nearly inelastic; at ordinary temperature hard, tough and somewhat 
horny, and flexible only in thin plates. At 130 degress F., it is sufficiently 
soft to be rolled into plates, and it becomes very soft at the temperature of 
boiling water. Gutta-percha is used principally for insulating electric 
wires, in the manufacture of hose, belting, combs and other flexible goods; 
also as a substitute for leather, for splints and various surgical instruments. 
It was first introduced into the civilized world in 1842, by Dr. Montgomery, 
a Scotch surgeon. 

Gypsy Cloth. A heavy-napped cotton cloth, used in the manufacture 
of negligee shirts, tennis and boating costumes, etc. [See Flannelette, 
Domet, Outing.] 



Hafooerdasher. [A term which meant originally "peddlers' wares," or 
the contents of a peddler's bag; derived from German Habtihr das, "Have 
you this?" — a phrase which peddlers formerly used when offering their 
wares for sale.] A dealer in small wares; specifically a dealer in small 
articles of dress, as neckties, collars, ribbons, trimmings, thread, pins, 
needles, etc.; also a dealer in hats. In the north of England habberdasher 
means a schoolmaster. The word is sometimes used in this country to 
describe a dealer in hats, caps and furnishing goods, for merj. 



HAB COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 173 

Habiliment. A garment; clothing; dress; vestment. Usually in the 
plural: as, fashionable habiliments. 

Habit. External dress; particularly, the costume or dress regularly 
worn, or appropriate for a particular occassion, use, or vocation. Also, a 
costume worn by women when riding on horseback. This, until about 1870, 
had a very long full skirt of cloth, which it was customary to pin or other- 
wise fasten below the feet of the wearer when mounted. The habit used at 
present is much shorter, and close-fitting, consisting of a skirt, waist and 
cap. The edge or hem of the skirt is somtimes weighted to keep it in 
position. 

Hair Cloth. A fabric woven of the hair of horses' tails, used for sofa 
coverings, seatings, etc., and for stiffening of ladies' dresses. The hair 
used in this manufacture (which composes only the weft) is procured from 
South America and Russia. All the black and gray hair is dyed a deep 
lustrous black for the making of black hair cloth for covering furniture, 
while the light is reserved for dyeing the brighter hues, such as green, 
claret, crimson, etc. According to the length of the hair, so can this cloth 
be made in widths varying from 14 to 40 inches. The quality, as well as 
the brilliancy and permanency of the colors depend in a great degree on the 
nature of the warp, which may be either cotton, linen or worsted. In the 
manufacture of either plain or damasked cloth, the weaver uses a sort of 
hooked shuttle which he passes between the threads of the warp toward 
the left hand; the assistant, or server, places a single hair over the end 
of the hook, and the weaver draws it through the warp. The placing of 
the hairs one by one renders this a tedious operation, and one that does 
not admit of the application of machinery, which is so advantageous 
where the weft consists of a continuous thread. An imitation of hair cloth 
is made by the use of hard-twisted and highly gummed and polished cotton 
threads. [See Sack Cloth.] 

Hair Manufacture. The various uses to which hair of different sorts 
is applied are familiar to every one. To prepare the curled hair for stuff- 
ing cushions, pillows and mattresses, short horse hair is carded between 
"teeth" or combs, beaten in a heap with a cane; curled and twisted round a 
cylinder of wood in cold water, then boiled and heated in an oven. It is 
then opened by partial uncurling in an opposite direction, and towzled or 
picked into curing pieces, by which operations they acquire a remarkable 
springy quality. Short white horse hair from the mane and tail, is used 
for brushes. Hair of medium length is spun into clothes-lines and woven 
into filtering bags. Long white horsehairs are used for violin bows and fish- 
ing lines. At some of the industrial exhibitions there have been displayed, 
from Russia, bowls, dishes and plates made of hare and rabbit hair, felted 
into a tough layer and varnished; they possess something of the appearance 
of papiermache. For various purposes in arts, the hair of the camel, 
badger, sable, hog, cow, dog and other animals is used. But by far the 



174 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAI 

most valuable kind is human hair. The making of wigs, perukes, beards, 
whiskers, switches, moustaches, eyebrows, chignons, bangs, etc., constitutes 
a trade in itself, in which many ingenious processes are involved. The 
best false hair comes from France, where it is sold by the tramme at 
prices which vary according to quality and color. The most expensive 
false hair is the silver white variety, which is in great demand and very 
difficult to find. This is due to the fact that men grow bald, in a majority 
of cases before their hair reaches the silver-white stage, and women, 
whether bald or not, are not disposed to sell their white hair at any price. 
They need it themselves. Still, women growing bald must have white hair 
to match the scant allowance advancing age has left them. The chemists 
have taken the matter in hand and are able to produce, by decoloration of 
hair of any color, a tolerable grade of white hair, which however, has a 
bluish tint — not at all approaching in beauty the silvery softness of hair 
which has been bleached by nature. False hair of the ordinary shades is 
obtained in two ways. The better and more expensive kind is cut directly 
from the heads of peasant women, who sell their silken tresses sometimes 
for a mere song and sometimes for a fair price, according as they have 
learned wisdom. Every year the whole territory of France is traveled 
over by men whose business it is to persuade village maidens, their 
mothers, and their aunts to part with their hair for financial considerations. 
These men are known as "cutters," and there are at least five hundred of 
them in the country always going from house to house, from farm to farm, 
and through all the villages in all the departments, seeking subjects for 
their scissors. A good cutter averages from two to five heads of hair a 
day, and he pays from 40 cents to $2 for each. It is estimated that a single 
head of luxuriant growth weighs about a pound. The false hair 'thus ob- 
tained — at the cost of the tears and regrets of many foolish maidens — is the 
finest in the market, and sells for an exaggerated price, which puts it beyond 
the reach of the ordinary purchaser. Besides, it is evident that the supply of 
genuine "cuttings" must fall far short of the demand for false hair. So the 
major portion of this wavy merchandise is obtained from the rag-pickers. 
These busy searchers of ash heaps and garbage barrels collect every day 
in the cities of Paris and London alone at least a hundred pounds of hair 
which some hundreds of thousands of women have combed out of their 
heads during the preceding twenty-four hours. This hair, all mixed to- 
gether and soiled, one would think beyond redemption, is sold to hair 
cleaners at from $1 to $1.50 a pound. The cleaning of this refuse hair is 
an operation which requires careful attention. After the hair has been 
freed from the dust and dirt and mud it is rubbed in fine sawdust until it 
shines once more with its pristine gloss, and then the process of sorting is 
begun. In the first place, skillful hands fix the individual hairs in frames 
with the roots all pointing the same way, and then they are arranged ac- 
cording to color. Finally, when a sufficient number of one color have been 
obtained (nor is this number so immense as is commonly supposed) they 



HAI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 175 

are made into the beautiful braids which are shown so seductively in the 
thewindovv of fashionable coiffeurs. It is said that the "cutters" of France 
have plied their trade so industriously that at present it is hardly possi- 
ble in the whole republic to find a woman who will sell her hair. The busi- 
ness has been done to death, and now the enterprising dealers in false hair 
are sending their representatives through Switzerland, Belgium and Nor- 
way convassing for unsophisticated lassies who will be robbed of their hair 
for a few pieces of silver. 

Hair-pin. A wire pin used to support braids and plaits of hair, or 
maintain the head-dress, of whatever description, in its proper position. 
The simplest kind is made of wire bent in the form of a letter U, but hair- 
pins are made also of ivory, bone, tortoise-shell, wood and metal, and of 
various shapes, often with ornamented heads or tops. It is a feminine asser- 
tion that a women can do more with a hair-pin than a man man can do with 
any one instrument in existence. She takes it to button her shoes, to crimp 
her hair, to fasten her hat on. To button her gloves, to pin her veil, to 
manicure her nails; and, sometimes, to pick her teeth. To clean her comb, 
and to cut the pasted label on her powder-box. She can use it as a paper- 
knife, or a book-mark; to open a letter, or draw a device upon a seal. If 
she twists the ends, it becomes a tape-needle, or a safety-pin, or a key-ring. 
With it she supplies many of the missing intricacies of buckles, suspenders 
and supporters, and repairs any damaged domestic article requiring a few 
inches of wire and a little feminine ingenuity. Ever ready to her hand, 
whether she uses it to pick her trunk-lock, or to trim the lamp-wick, to 
mend her bracelet or her bustle, she handles it with a dexterous grace and 
a confident skill, born of inherited knowledge and educated by long prac- 
ticed use. 

Hair Net. A silk net, confined to an oval shape by rubber cord, used 
by women to keep up the back hair. Nets were once known as " cauls," 
and have been used in various forms from the earliest times. "Crespine," 
in the 16th century denoted a hair net made of crape, and at present in 
France ordinary silk nets are called "crespinettes." 

Hammer Cloth. [A corruption of hamper cloth.] In early English days 
when coaches were first introduced, frugal Englishmen who lived in the 
country used to load their carriages with provisions for the family when 
they came to London. The wooden box which held the provisions was 
called a hamper, and thus, covered with a cloth, was a convenient seat for 
coachman. Hammer cloth is, therefore, a corruption of hamper cloth. At 
present it is the cloth which covers the driver's seat in sdme kinds of car- 
riages, usually falling in pleats on all four sides. 

Hammock. [From Sp. hamaca, a kind of hanging bed or mat. Colum- 
bus, in the narrative of his first voyage, says: "A great many Indians in ca- 
noes came to the ship to-day for the purpose of bartering their cotton, and 
hamacas or nets in which they sleep.] Hammocks used at sea, especially in 
men-of-war, are made of canvas, and have a number of cords at each end 



176 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAN 

called clues, which are brought together and secured to an iron ring, which 
is hung on a hook attached to the deck beams. Those used in tropical parts 
of America and in the North in the summer time are made of hemp or Pan- 
ama grass. Hammocks may be made water-proof by immersing in boiling 
linseed oil, and leaving them in it a day or two. When taken out the su- 
perfluous oil should be rubbed off with a cloth, and allowed to dry. They 
will then not become rotted by the action of the weather. 

Handkerchief. The most ancient handkerchief was merely a bit of 
silk tissue, first used centuries ago by priests at the altar. For many 
years, indeed, priests were the only persons in the European world 
allowed the privilege of using handkerchiefs at all, and they used them 
only at the altar for the sake of propriety. It was then called a "facial," 
and was left with the other vestments of worship when the service was 
done. Presently the grand ladies of the Court began to provide them- 
selves with similar squares of silk, and " maids and gentlewoman gave 
to their favorites, as .tokens of their love, little handkerchiefs of about 
three or four inches square, and the gentlemen wore them in their hats as 
favors of their mistresses." The next step was to embroider the edge of 
these squares. The Empress Josephine was lovely, but her teeth were not 
perfect, and in order to conceal them she used a small lace handkerchief, 
which she raised constantly to her lips. The ladies at the French Court 
at once adopted the fashion and handkerchiefs came into general use. 
Soon their convenience recommended them so highly that all the ladies 
and gentlemen connected with the various European courts adopted their 
use. The fashion thus introduced by royalty was soon taken up by the 
under ranks, till to-day the handkerchief is an indispensable article of 
apparel. In the line of handkerchiefs, all plain white hemstitched linen 
goods are denominated " staples," and the demand for them varies but 
slightly from one year to another. "Finish" is everything to a linen 
handkerchief, and upon it, more than anything else depends the price 
which the goods will bring. The raw material may be of the very best 
quality, but if it does not possess the requisite finish, the chances of it find- 
ing favor are very small indeed. The best grades come from Belfast, Ireland. 
Large quantities of swiss handkerchiefs, embroidered and otherwise worked 
on machines are annually imported from St. Gall, Switzerland. These 
swiss goods, most of which are cotton, can not be compared to the Irish 
linen goods, which are embellished by hand, in point of quality. The 
fineness of quality of a cotton handkerchief can not go beyond a fixed 
limit, as above a certain grade the " union " article (made of a mixture of 
cotton and linen), or the cheaper grade of linen handkerchiefs bars its 
progress. No matter how fine a cotton handkerchief may be, it can not 
be compared to a linen one. The cotton article loses its finish on being 
washed, and becomes harsh and unpleasant to the touch; it loses its color, 
becoming yellowish and soiled looking. Yet owing to its cheapness it will 
always be in demand by a certain class of trade, both in the printed and 



HAN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 177 

the woven effects. Printed handkerchiefs are for the most part produced 
in this country. Handkerchief-printing involves a great deal of labor and 
outlay, some mills having at one time as many as 60,000 engraved designs, 
some for a single color, and some for two or more. The finest of these are 
made on wooden blocks to be printed flat, and those blocks are always 
preserved so that they can be reproduced at any time. The bulk of the 
cheaper designs are engraved on copper rollers. From each of these 
rollers a " first edition," so to speak, is printed, generally about 1,000 dozen. 
If the pattern shows immediate popularity the roller is preserved; if not, 
the design is turned off in the lathe, leaving a smooth surface for the next 
engraving. Silk handkerchiefs are chiefly imported from China and 
Japan, either finished or " in the piece," that is, not separated or hemmed. 
Handkerchiefs of whatever material composed, are usually square, or 
nearly so. A " size " is one inch, the number being denoted by the inches 
across the web, ranging from 12 to 27. [See Bandanna, Block Printing, 
Calico, Embroidery. For linen and cotton tests see Linen.] 

Hank. A skein or coil of yarn or thread. More particularly a defi- 
nite length of yarn, of cotton, linen, silk or wool. A hank of cotton is 840 
yards. A hank of linen is 3,000 yards. Silk is not coiled and numbered on 
the principle of cotton and linen. The fineness of silk yarn is determined 
by constant length with variable weight, whereas, other yarns are indicated 
by constant weight with variable length. The original standard length of 
silk was 12,467 yards, six inches, the numbers being the weight in deniers 
of twenty-six grains. The number is ascertained by the weight of 12,467 
yards and six inches, in grains — 1-24 of a denier of a hank containing 520 
yards, twenty inches. Spun silk is numbered on a different principle. It 
is determined by the cotton standard, the number of skeins of 840 yards 
each to the pound, making a hank. Woolen and worsted yarns are also 
numbered in the same manner. 

Haslock (haz'-lok). The lock of wool that grows on the halse or 
throat of a sheep; hence the finest quality of wool. Also called hassock. 

Hassock. [From hassock, a bushy bunch of grass.] A thick hard 
cushion used as a foot stool. * 

Hat-block. The block or mold on which a hat is shaped. It consists 
several pieces of wood or metal fastened together, preserving the general 
outline of the crown of a hat. 

Hat-body. The unshaped or partly shaped piece of felt from which a 
hat is to be formed. 

Hats and Caps. There is but little relating to hat-making recorded in 
history, although their partial use may be traced back to the time of ancient 
Greece, probably as early as the age of Homer, when they were worn, al- 
though only by the better class of citizens when on a distant journey. The 
same custom prevailed among the Athenians, as is evident from some of 



178 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAT 

the equestrian figures in the Elgin Marbles. The Romans used a bonnet or 
cap at their sacrifices and festivals, but on a journey the hat with a brim 
was adopted. In the middle ages the bonnet or cap with a front was in use 
among the laity, while the ecclesiastics wore hoods, or cowls. Pope Inno- 
cent, in the 13th century, allowed the cardinals the use ot scarlet hats, and 
about the year 1440 the use of hats by persons on a journey appears to have 
been introduced into France, and soon after became common in that country, 
whence probably it spread to other European nations. Hatters at the 
present day ascribe the honor of the invention of felting, and of its prospec- 
tive introduction to that of hat-making, to the old renouned monk St. 
Clement, who, when marching at the head of his pilgrim army obtained 
some sheep's wool to put between the soles of his feet and the sandals that 
he wore, which of course became matted into a solid piece. The monk, 
philosophizing upon this circumstance, promulgated the idea of its future 
usefulness, and thus it is said arose the systematic art of felting and hat- 
making. [See Felting.] The first authentic accounts of regular hatters 
appeared in the Middle Ages — in Nuremberg in 1360, in France in 1380, in 
Bavaria in 1401 and in London in 1510. The hatting trade of the United 
States is noticed first in the representations made by the London Board of 
Trade to the House of Commons in the year 1732, in which they refer to the 
complaints of the London hatters, regarding the extent to which their par- 
ticular manufacture was being carried' on at that time in New York and 
the New England States. A look at the fashions and styles of hats of 
ancient times is interesting as well as amusing. So capricious is the the 
fancy of man that nothing is immutable, all is change, and hats have 
been of all conceivable shapes and colors, and dressed with the most fanci- 
ful decorations, plumes, jewels, silk loops, rosettes, badges, gold and silver 
bands, etc. The crowns and brims have been of all possible styles from 
the earliest period. It would appear that nothing is left for the present 
and all coming time, but the revival of what has already been, even to the 
fantastical peaked crown that rose half a yard above the wearer's head. 
In the 15th century hats in Great Britain were called vanities, and cost 
twenty, thirty, and forty English shillings apiece, which were large sums of 
money at that early period. The most extreme broad brims were worn 
about the year 1700, shortly after which the three-cornered cocked hat 
came in. It is a singular historical fact that for a thousand years every 
distinct hat style has endured an even century — with one exception. The 
elegant soft hat of the Spaniard has remained the same from the earliest 
period to the present day, while among all other nations a transformation 
in the style of hats has taken place every one hundred years. Comfort in the 
wear seems to have given place at all times to fancy and the demands of 
Fashion. On the 23d of each November occurs the hatters' annual fes- 
tival, that being St. Clements day, the patron saint of the trade, and is 
celebrated in an appropriate manner in Europe and America by all manu- 
facturers. 



hat 



COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



179 



Hat making was long considered a business to which machinery never 
could be applied, but the inventors have dispelled this illusion, and ma- 
chinery is now employed in all the most important departments of the 
manufacture. The reason this idea obtained such general credence was, 
first, on account of the close attention necessary while the hat is under the 
operation of sizing; second, the known impossibility of napping or ruffing 
a hat by any means of machinery; also the acknowledged failures in 
several attempts to substitute carding for that of bowing, and various futile 
attempts with the irons in the finishing and shaping departments. The in- 
novations of machinery, however, have now obtained a sure footing in all 
large factories. In the United States the largest centre of hat manufactur- 
ing is at Danbury, Conn., where there are made of all sorts about 6,000,000 
a year. This city makes two-thirds of all the fur hats worn in the United 
States, and has nearly as many hatters as all the other cities in the country 
combined. Some hats, most of them for women and children, are made of 
wool, which is cheaper, but does not wear so well as fur. But by far the 
larger number of men's stiff and soft hats are made of fur. The best fur 
for this use is that of the nutria, a South American water animal, something 
like the beaver, but not so large. The steadily growing demand for nutria 
fur for other purposes has raised the price of it so much that it is now used 
only in the finest grade of hats. Next to the nutria the most expensive fur 
that hatters use is that of the Russian and German hare and musk-rat; 
then comes the fur of the coney. Saxony and merino wool are used for 
fine wool hats. For the past few years the current prices of hatters' furs 
have undergone rapid changes. The following table gives the compara- 
tive values of the different descriptions for a series of years. Numerous as 
are these various names, most of the animals mentioned produce five or 
six different qualities of the fur from particular parts of the same skin, 
which vary greatly in price and value. 



- 


1886 


1887. 


1891. 


Av'ge for 
15 years. 


Triple Ring )__ 


$2 25 
3 35 
2 65 
2 10 

1 80 

2 20 
1 87 
1 15 

57 

35 
1 75 
1 55 
1 32»/ 2 
1 60 
1 35 

80 

85 

47 
1 10 
1 25 
1 20 
1 75 


$3 37 & 
3 60 
3 40 
3 00 

2 55 

3 00 
2 40 

1 75- 
95 
60 

2 30 
2 20 
2 05 
2 20 
1 70 
1 40 
1 35 

65 
1 60 
1 80 

1 60 

2 15 


$4 50 
3 20 
2 75 
2 45 
2 15 
2 65 
2 10 
1 37 Vi 

85 

45 
1 95 
1 85 
1 65 
1 85 
1 30 
1 00 
1 15 

45 
1 40 
1 50 
1 50 
180 


$3 60 


Double Ring [-Nutria . 


3 65^ 


Double Ring ) 


3 16 


IH hare. _ 


2 76 l /2 


OIHhare 


2 29 


BHB 


2 80 


HB 


2 19 


Blue Sides.. _ .. 


1 66 


Hare Bellies 


1 09 


Hair Tails 


60 


BOB X Scotch 


2 14 


BCBX 


2 04 1 ^ 


CB 


1 84 


BCB Raw 


2 04 


BOB, Unplucked 


1 54 


CB do 


1 25V4 


Coney Sides, Scotch 


1 33 


Coney Tails, English .. 


65 


BCB, White 


1 55 


BCB, Fawn 

BCB, Black 


1 59 

1 47 




1 98 



180 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



HAT 





1886. 


1887. 


1891. 


Av'ge for 
15 years. 


Extra Coney 


1 20 
92 
85 
60 
80 
55 
30 
25 
95 
85 

1 05 

1 10 

2 00 
1 15 

45 
70 
55 
45 
25 
20 
50 
20 
35 


1 90 

1 55 

1 40 

1 15 

1 10 

1 00 

55 

40 

1 40 

1 50 

1 50 

t 45 

1 90 

1 60 

60 

85 

75 

65 

35 

25 

75 

25 

65 


1 45 

1 15 

1 15 

90 

87% 

"42 
27 
1 10 
1 20 
1 15 

1 10 

2 75 
2 25 
1 00 
1 05 

85 
90 
17 
25 
85 
30 
45 


1 77 


No. 1 Coney __ 


1 46 


Mottled 


1 33 


Unpolled 


1 09 


Coney Sides 


1 00 


Moyen Coney . 


97 


Coney Tails, French 


49 


Coney Creek 


36 


Black Coney 

White Coney 


1 24 
1 52 


Fawn Coney .. 


1 51 


ARB 

Belly Mnskrat.... 


1 38 

2 14 


Natural Mnskrat 


1 68 


Colored Muskrat 


90 


Colored Seal 


1 05 


SPT White Coney 


88 


Kettle Ronndings 


60 


Dark Ronndings.. 

Coney Waste . 


31 

27 


Brown Coney Extra .... 


68 


PC Coney 


34 


Coney Cheek, English 


62 



The skin is cut from the fur by a machine with revolving knives, which 
cut it off in shreds. The fur is left full length, and as it rolls away from the 
knives it preserves the general outline of the skin. The fleeces of fur are 
folded and packed, a number together, in small sacks or bundles. For- 
merly the greater part of the fur used here was imported already cut, but 
we are now competing with foreign countries in fur-cutting, and about half 
the fur used in this country is at present cut in New York, Brooklyn and 
Connecticut. In making hats different kinds of fur are mixed well together. 
Various hat manufacturers have various mixtures which they keep to them- 
selves; each strives to attain the best results in finish and durability with 
great economy. In the process of making a felted fur hat, the bundles of 
fur are first opened, and the fur in the combination and proportions deemed 
best for the kinds of hats to be made is laid in a big mixing box. Thence 
the fur is put into a simple machine in which it is still further mixed. Then 
it goes to the " picker room" where it is "blown." In this operation the fur 
is freed trom bits of skin, hair and other foreign substance. A minute frag- 
ment of skin on the surface of a hat would damage it. The fur goes in at 
one end between iron rollers to a picker, which makes 2,400 revolutions to 
a minute. The picker is a small horizontal cylinder with short wire teeth. 
There is a series of rollers and pickers interspersed with blowing chambers. 
The pickers straighten out the fibers of the fur, which drop on a sieve. 
The hair, bits of skin and so on, including sometimes coarser bits of fur, 
drop through. From the picker the fur goes into a blowing chamber. Here 
it floats about softly, in appearance not unlike a drab foam, and is still 
more thoroughly mixed. It goes on through a series of rollers and pickers 
and blow chambers, and comes out at the farther end of the machine a 
sheet of fur uniform in color and appearance, something like drab cotton 



HAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 181 

wadding, except that there is no glaze on the surface. It holds together, 
but is easily pulled apart with the hands. 

The fur now goes to the forming room where the hat bodies are made. 
It is weighed out according to grade used, and the size of the hat to be 
made. From three to five ounces is the usual amount of fur used in a hat. 
The weighing is done with accuracy, the weights varying by fractions as 
small as the sixteenth of an ounce. 

The process in use for centuries by our forefathers of forming a hat 
body, was by "bowing " by hand. [See Bowing.] This has been entirely 
superseded by the "forming" machine. At one end of the forming machine 
is an apron upon which the fur is spread to be fed into the machine; at the 
other end is the trunk, which is the part in which the hat body is formed. 
The trunk looks like a tall, substantially-built water pail, with a fixed, 
rounded cover. It is about 7 feet in height, about 2 feet in diameter at the 
bottom, flaring to 3)4 feet at the top. In the front of the trunk there are 
two small doors which open all the way up and down, affording the freest 
access to the interior. At the bottom of the trunk and in its center is a lit- 
tle turn-table which turns round about 75 times a minute. Underneath is 
an apparatus which produces in the trunk a constant and uniform draft 
downward. A hollow cone, made of perforated sheet-copper with the top 
rounded, is set on the turn-table. The perforations are as thick as the 
holes of a pepper box. When the doors of the trunk are closed the draft 
draws the air through the perforations of the cone. 

The apron is a flat table about 2^ feet square, attached to the trunk. 
The workman takes a portion of fur and spreads it upon the apron and 
feeds it evenly into the machine. It goes through picker and brush. The 
picker makes 5,000 revolutions a minute. It picks the fur and throws it in 
separate hairs to a blower, running at a high speed, which blows it in at the 
top of the trunk, where it floats like a shower of haze or fur. Then the 
draught is turned on from the bottom and draws the floating fur down to 
the cone. It does not go through the perforations, but it completely covers 
the outside of the cone and clings to it, held by the draught. By means of 
simple dampers the draught may be so regulated as to make the fur light 
upon the cone where it is most wanted. For most hats greater thickness 
of fur is required in the brim. The fur can be drawn to the cone and held to 
it in a deposit that is thin on top and increasing in thickness down the sides 
to the base all round. While the draft is on, it is difficult to pull any of this 
fur away; if the draft is stopped, it is easy to pick it off with the fingers. It 
takes but a minute or so for all the fur to settle on the cone. The workman 
then opens the door of the trunk and throws over the cone a wet cloth 
which completely envelops it. Over the cloth he places a cone-shaped tin 
■cover like an extinguisher. The two cones (the perforated one placed 
originally on the turn-table and the tin one placed over the wet cloth), with 
the fur and cloth between, are taken from the turn-table and put in a tub 
of water. They are allowed to remain in the water a few minutes, when 



182 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAT 

they are lifted to a table, where the tin cover and cloth are taken off. The 
hat body has already begun to shrink. It starts to roll off of itself. It is 
quickly removed from the original cone, straightened out and skillfully 
folded, wet and limp. Next the hat body is taken to the hardening room, 
where it is examined. It is at this stage about 2^ feet tall, and without the 
sign of a brim. When it has been examined it is rolled up. The rolling 
makes the fur stick together, and the body goes on shrinking. Then it 
goes to the sizing room, where the hats are felted. Five hat bodies are laid 
together and made up in a roll. The roll is dipped in a tub of hot water, 
and then rolled up in linen canvas, dipped into water again and laid on the 
lower rollers of the sizing machine just over the top. The sizing machine 
has 3 revolving wooden rollers, two side by side, and one a few inches 
above. The hat bodies are rolled between them and pressed gently, at first 
by the lower rollers only. The hot water, the motion, and the gentle 
pressures make the bodies shrink and felt. They are unrolled and again 
folded and dipped, and rolled up. After going through three machines in 
this manner, they get to one whose top roller is so adjusted as to help in 
the pressing and rolling. The hat bodies are shrunk to proper sizes and 
proportions, all the manipulations requiring care and skill. 

The hat body, folded flat, now measures about 10>£ inches from the 
center ot the crown to the edge of the brim; standing like a cone; the diam- 
eter of the base is about 10>^ inches. In the next operation the hat body 
is laid on a table, and with one sweep around the rim with a sharp knife 
the edge is made uniform and smooth. The hat is then dryed and shaved. 
In felting the hat body the hai»s that may remain in the fur works to the 
surface. The hat body is put on a turning machine, and the outside is 
shaved smooth by knives that work something like the cutters of a lawn- 
mower. 

The hat thus far followed is to be a stiff hat, and it goes next to the 
stiffening room where the brim is to be dipped into shellac. This is done 
by hand very quickly and with great accurracy. Then it is passed up 
between rollers which squeeze it and leave in the brim just the needed 
quantity of shellac. The crown stiffening is applied on the inner side with 
a brush, by hand. Then the hat goes into the steam-box. The steam drives 
in the shellac, and the hat is put in a weak acid to "set" the stiffening. 
Next the hat goes to the blocking room. It is placed on a " star," which is 
a frame of curved ribs radiating outward and downward, the general out- 
line being something like that of the crown of a hat. Over the star is its 
counterpart, the tip machine, which is movable up or down, and works the 
upper part of the hat body into shape, being heated. The next star is 
larger and on this the crown is brought nearer into shape. Then the hat 
goes to machines which stretch and shape the brim. The hat looks now 
something like a soft crush hat that has been stiffened. It is put into a vat 
of dye to be colored, and from there it goes to the blocking machine. After 
a hot bath it is put on a form, A shaper which has a lever attached is 



HAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 183 

brought down over the hat. It flattens the brim and shapes the crown for 
the last time, except on the top. After removing the shaper the hat is 
cooled with a stream of cold water and is put on a whizzer, which revolves 
it rapidly and expels most of the water from it. Then it goes to the drying 
room, and the next day to the squaring-up room, where the hats are assorted 
by sizes and squared up with shellac inside. They are then ready for the 
finishing room. The hat, whether soft or stiff, is put on a block and 
sponged, ironed, brushed, sand-papered and singed. Here the crown is 
brought into final shape at the top. The brim is finished as to its surface, 
but is still left perfectly flat. The finer hats are finished by hand, and the 
coarser one by machine. The ironing of a machine-finished hat is done by 
an iron attached to a movable arm, and heated by gas fed into it by flexible 
rubber tubes. As the hat turns on a block the iron adjusts itself with great 
accuracy, finishing its work at the centre of the crown and then dropping 
away. The hat then goes to the rounding machine, which cuts off the edge 
of the still flat brim and leaves it just the desired dimensions. The edge 
of the brim is stiffened with a preparation of shellac cut with alcohol, and 
the hat goes to the curling room. It is placed, brim downward, on a form 
which revolves slowly on an upright axis. Two little steel arms, one on 
each side, turn the edge of the brim over, and two irons, one on each side 
iron it down as the hat goes around. Then the hat is put in a round curl- 
ing machine which curls the edge of the brim and gives it a little dip at the 
ends. The edge is planed smooth by a machine in the shaping-room. It 
is then laid on an iron table heated by steam. This heat makes the hat 
pliable. The brims of the finer hats are brought into a final shape by 
hand; others are placed, crown downward, on shaped "forms" that support 
the brim. Suspended over each of these forms, covering the brim, is a bag 
of sand. When the bag is dropped it shapes the brim to the form. An 
endless wire of exactly the right size and shaped to follow the curves of the 
brim, is inserted under the turned-over edge. Then the hats are sent to 
the trimming room. The work here is all done by women. The edges are 
bound, the crown lined, and a split sheep-skin sweat-band attached. They 
now are inspected carefully and brushed by a machine, after which they 
are ready to be packed in cases containing from three to six dozen. 

In the manufacture of soft hats the process is the same as stiff hats up 
to the final shrinking of the bodies, which are shrunk with a view to the 
style and dimensions of the hat to be produced. After the shrinking, the 
processes vary in some minor details, but they are in their main features 
substantially alike. KM felted fur hats, of whatever texture, nature, or 
name, must have undergone the above described operations. The process 
of manufacturing wool hats is but slightly different. The "body" of wool 
hats is prepared by first carding the wool. On being delivered from the 
carding-machine, the wool "slivers" are wound around a conical block of 
wood, which revolves slowly with a reciprocating motion, so that there is a 
Continual crossing and recrossing of the wool as it is wound round the 



184 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAT 

block. This diagonal winding is an essential feature of a wool hat, as 
thereby the strength is made equal in every direction. When this mat 
has been wound around the block to the required thickness, it is placed on 
a perforated iron plate through which steam is blown. When well 
moistened and heated, the mats are placed between boards and subjected to 
a hard rubbing, to enable them to bear the subsequent strong felting opera- 
tions. The felting is accomplished by machinery, and in some cases a 
form of felting mill is used, but in all cases, heat, moisture, pressure, rub- 
bing and turning are the agencies for felting a wool hat. Next- follows 
blocking and shaping, as in the case of fur hats. Merino, Saxony and 
lamb's wool are the varieties used in the manufacture of wool hats. No 
cotton, or other vegetable fibre is used in hat-making, as these are entirely 
devoid of felting qualities. [See Felting.] 

Silk Hats consist of a light stiff "body" covered with a plush of silk; 
the manufacture of the latter in a brilliant, glossy condition being the most 
important part of the industry. Originally the "bodies" were made of felt 
and cork, but at present calico is the material almost exclusively used. 
The calico is first stiffened with a varnish of shellac, and then cut into 
three pieces sufficient for crown, side and brim. The side-piece is wound 
round a wooden hat block and its edges joined by hot ironing; the crnwn- 
piece being put on in a similar manner and attached at the top. The brim, 
consisting of three thicknesses of the sized calico cemented together, is 
now slipped over and brought into its position, and thereafter a second 
side-piece and another crown are cemented on. The whole body now re- 
ceives a coat of size, and subsequently is varnished over; then it is ready 
for the operation of covering. In covering this body the under brim, 
generally of merino, is first attached, then the upper brim, and lastly the 
plush crown and side-piece sewed together and drawn over. All these by 
hot ironing and stretching are drawn smooth and tight, and as the var- 
nish on the body softens with the heat applied, body and cover adhere all 
over to each other without wrinkle or pucker. Dressing and polishing by 
means of damping, brushing and ironing come next. The brim is then 
only to be curled and bound, the linings inserted, and the hat is 
ready for use. The quality of silk hats depends altogether upon the 
quality of silk plush with which they are covered. It is a curious fact that 
this silk plush is all imported to this country from Lyons, France. A good 
workman can prepare and iron twelve "bodies" daily. He can put the silk 
coverings on and finish about ten, while the brims of fully two dozen ought 
to be curled daily by a good hand. "Stovepipes" are never made up in 
larger quantities than are required for the temporary needs of the market, 
as styles change twice a year; and when a silk hat has gone out of style, it 
is absolutely valueless. If, however only the styles of brims change, they 
can. easily be reshaped by heating and curling. 

The silk hat originated in the United States, and was introduced into 
Europe by Benjamin Franklin. When, in 1790, Franklin was sent as era- 



HAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 185 

bassador to Paris, he wore the simple attire of the Quakers. A prominent 
feature of this was the hat, which has narrowed and heightened into the 
fashionable "plug" of to-day. It was then low-crowned and broader brim- 
med, and presented so quaint an aspect that the Parisian dudes were dis- 
posed to make it the butt of their wit. Not so, however, with the leaders 
of the French revolution, who happened to take a fancy to the queer 
shaped tile, and forthwith adopted it as their own distinctive headgear 
In three days' time the Franklin hat, as it was designated then, was the 
"rage" in Paris, and from that time — just a hundred years ago — the hat 
has constantly grown in favor, although it is probable that a contrivance 
more destructive to the hair and more useless for practical purposes was 
never designed by the fertile brain of the hatter. 

After the introduction of gutta-percha into the arts (1842), and the 
manufacture of it into thin sheeting, a new kind of hat was introduced, 
made of gutta-percha and cloth, which promised for awhile to supersede 
the soft, low-crowned felt article. But the jealousy of some of the manu- 
facturers of felt goods destroyed the new business almost entirely when in 
its infancy, it is said purposely, by making them so very inferior and at the 
same time so perfect a counterfeit, that the really good and perfectly made 
gutta-percha hat became universally distrusted, and hence the result. The 
best of these were made of a thin gutta-percha crown in a variety of 
shapes, and covered with cloth, producing an extremely durable aud light- 
weight hat. 

Caps. — New York City manufactures nearly nine-tenths of the caps 
made in the United States. In that oddest nest-like part of city, the French 
quarter, 3,000 men and girls make annually $5,000,000 worth of caps, exclu- 
sive of the $1,000,000 worth of fur caps made in that region. At least 
1,000,000 dozen caps are turned out in this quarter every year. As to styles 
there are nearly 500 varieties. Of yatching caps alone there are some- 
thing like two dozen kinds. Every year sees some new cap over which 
the public rages for a season, and then abandons. Such caps sell by the 
hundred thousand dozen. A hint comes from Paris, and in a few weeks 
the new caps swarm in every city and village and street throughout the 
land. A few leading styles of caps, however, persist with little or no 
change from year to year. Cap-makers are a fairly well paid class of 
workmen. The trade is minutely sub-divided. One man cuts the material, 
another blocks the crown, another sews the sides, and still another presses 
the seams, while the small finishing touches, such as cord and tassel, are 
given by girls. Work is done by the piece, and cap-makers earn from 50 
cents to $2 per dozen caps. The most skillful men in busy seasons earn as 
high as $30 a week, and occasionally men have been known to earn $50 a 
week. The season for making winter caps begins in April and ends in 
October. Then comes a lull, and in November begins the season for mak- 
ing summer caps. Materials are as varied as styles. Silks, velvets and 
cassimeres are the principal ones. Among the most expensive caps are 



186 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAT 

those made for naval officers. The bullion embroidery adds considerably 
to the cost of such caps. Much of this is imported from France, but some of 
it is made in the French quarter by girls who work together in small shops 
or at home, earning from $6 to $14 per week. The fur cap trade is also 
centered in the French quarter, the work being at its height during the 
summer months. Sealskin caps are less popular than they once were in 
the United States, but there are still about 2,000 dozen of them annually 
made in New York. They are made from portions of skin too small to be 
used in the best sacques. The manufacture is highly sub-divided, as in 
the case of the cloth-cap industry. It requires an intimate knowledge of 
furs, and many of those engaged in the business are foreigners. Much of 
the trade is carried on in comparatively small shops, such as is usual in 
the French portion of New York City. Often the costliest and most beau- 
tiful goods are produced in shabby little dens where one would expect to 
find no more important industry than that of a cobbler. [See Fur.] 

The cap trade is largely in the hands of jobbers who buy direct from 
the small manufacturers and distribute the goods. Every considerable city 
west of Pittsburg has large jobbing houses that deal in caps, and the 
wildest Rocky Mountain hunter often wears a cap sent him through jobber 
and retailer from the French cap makers of New York. Comparatively 
few caps are worn m the extreme East. Nearly all of them are consumed 
west of the Alleghanies, and a few are sent as far as the Sandwich Islands. 

Straw hats. — Straw-plaiting is one of the oldest arts practiced by 
mankind, many specimens having been found in the tombs of the ancient 
Egyptians. In Europe the industry remained in a comparatively rude 
state down to the end of the 16th century, when it attained commercial im- 
portance in France and Northern Italy. The famous Leghorn straw of 
Italy began to acquire celebrity late in the 18th century. It is still unsur- 
passed for beauty and durability. Leghorn is a variety of wheat grown 
solely for the straw, which is distinguished for its extreme slenderness and 
pearly white color. It is now about fifty years since hats made of straw 
first began to obtain a firm and lasting hold upon the affections of Ameri- 
can citizens. Prior to that time, straw hats were worn but they were im- 
ported ready for use, few, if any being manufactured in this country. So 
completely have the conditions changed that during the season of 1891, 
1,500,000 dozen were made in the United States. But this does not repre- 
sent the entire consumption, for fully 500,000 dozen more were imported 
made, requiring only to be shaped and trimmed after being landed. Most 
of the hat-straw now used in this country comes from China and Japan. 
England, Italy and Switzerland contribute but a small fraction of their for- 
mer yield. It is shipped here carefully braided, in great bunches, and the 
braids are sewed and afterwards pressed into shape by expert American 
hands. The cultivation of a variety of wheat straw, from which the braid is 
worked, has been a special industry in the northern provinces of China for 
more than a century. It was not, however, until after the commercial city 



HAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 187 

of Tientsin was in 1858 opened to foreign trade that the Chinese farmer 
began to pay much attention to the cultivation and curing of the straw, so as 
to secure greater uniformity of color as well as fineness of quality. The 
great desideratum is, to obtain as perfect a white straw as possible by 
means of bleaching in the sun. The process is to pull up the stalks by 
hand when the grain is in the milk, and only about half developed. Great 
care must be taken to prevent exposure to rain. After bleaching, the straw 
is cut at the first joint from the top. Although cut when green, the straw 
readily bleaches under the sun, producing a tough flexible fibre — much 
more so than ripe wheat, which is brittle and yellow. The industry ex- 
tends through the great provinces of Chihli, Shansi, Honan and Shantung, 
and gives remunerative employment to great numbers of the poorer classes, 
principally to women and children. It is said that a dexterous woman can 
make from 35 to 40 yards of braid a day, earning from 14 to 20 cents. 

The first shipment of this braid to the United States was made about 
the year 1873, when thirty-five bales were shipped. The shipment now 
averages about 25,000 bales per annum. There are 240 bundles in a bale, 
each bundle containing fifty-five yards. Connecticut and Maryland are the 
principal centers of the straw hat industry. The operation of forming the 
hat is very simple. The plaited braid, preparatory to being sewed, is wound 
upon reels, from which it is easily fed to the sewing machine specially con- 
structed for this purpose. After sewing, the embryo hat is pressed into 
shape while damp over a plaster paris "form" or block. Heavy and pow- 
erful hydraulic presses are used in shaping the ordinary kinds of straw 
hats, and the necessary metal molds that form the " dies " for these ma- 
chines represent tons of zinc. 

Mackinaw Hats.— Probably no other straw hat ever introduced to the 
American public can show such a continued and extended popularity as 
the Mackinaw, this variety having held the lead as an article of summer 
headwear for upwards of fifteen successive years. The claim of the Mack- 
inaw to antiquity and long use is, perhaps, as strong as that of other plaits 
with which the trade has become familiar, for no doubt the natives of Can- 
ada made use of these hats as a head covering long before they became an 
article of trade. The Machinaw for many years after its first introduc- 
tion was sold under the designation of the " Canada " hat, the name given 
to a similar but comparatively degraded article produced in Eastern Can- 
ada. The title " Mackinaw" was first applied by Mr. R. A. Taylor, a mer- 
chant of Baltimore. He introduced the hat to his customers as far back as 
1850, and sold it for thirty consecutive seasons without any apparent 
diminution of popularity. " Mackinaw," as a trade name, does not, as 
might be supposed, indicate the region from whence the straw comes, but 
undoubtedly received its christening from the retailer who first used the 
goods, in order to create a distinction from the inferior but similar article 
termed " Canada." While both the Mackinaw and the Canada are made 
of wheat straw, the difference between the two, as the product of one coun- 



188 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HAT 

try and of nearly the same latitude, is a great surprise. The wheat of the 
eastern part of Canada produces a straw dark in color, harsh in texturd 
and of little use for making a hat, while that grown in the western part of 
the same country is clear and white in color, possessing a brilliant enamel 
which imparts the beauty that rendered the Mackinaw so famous an article 
of fashion. The straw is a local rather than a national production, coming 
from a region comprised within a small radius around the city of Detroit, 
part of which is Canadian territory and part within the borders of the 
United States; for while considerable straw from which the plait is made is 
raised and plaited in Michigan, by far the largest proportion, as also the 
best quality, is the product of Canadian territory. Nature seems to have 
provided a small community with unusual advantages, for within a limited 
territory has been produced all the vast quantity of straw plait required to 
supply the demand that for many years has existed for Mackinaw hats, and 
all efforts to produce elsewhere wheat straw with a bright enamel and of a 
clear color have invariably failed. The producers of this straw are wholly 
the poor, ignorant half-breeds, who spring from the Canadian-French and 
the Indian. Finding that hats, as well as the skins of the animals which 
they trapped could be sold, the family talent was brought into use to pro- 
duce something that might contribute to their meagre subsistence. So dur- 
ing the winter season, while the men hunted the muskrat, the women and 
children plaited straw for hats, which, on the opening of the spring, were 
carried with the skins to the towns where they were exchanged for food, 
clothing, and ammunition. To the advantages of soil and climate is attrib- 
utep that purity of color, brilliancy of enamel, toughness of fiber, and elas- 
ticity of texture which are recommendations of the Mackinaw. Added to 
these natural qualities is the advantage of a peculiar treatment given to 
the straw by the natives, who employ a whitening or bleaching process 
without the use of chemicals. 

Palm Leaf Hats. — The manufacture of palm leaf hats was begun in 
1826; and as early as 1831 2,000,000 were made and sold. The leaves are 
procured from various sources, some from Spain and Malaga, and some 
from Mexico and Southern United States. With the growth of the hat 
trade various improvements have been made in the processes of manufac- 
ture, machinery having been introduced to perform the plaiting operation. 
These are frequently termed chip hats. 

Manilla Hats. — Hats of this description are made of the split stems of 
the manilla tree, found in the Phillipine Islands. These hats rank next to 
Panama in point of durability. 

Panama Hats. — A variety made from the leaves of the screw pine, in 
South America. They are termed Panama on account of the city of that 
name being the principal point from which the braid is shipped. The 
green leaves of the screw pine tree are gathered by the natives before they 
unfold, and after the ribs and coarse veins have been removed, are cut into 
shreds. These are exposed to the sun a few days, and then immersed in 



HAT 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



189 



boiling water until they become white, when they are hung up in the shade 
and bleached for several days. This gives the straw a color about the 
shade of slacked lime. A native can plait enough straw for a hat in two or 
three days' time, but the finest hats require several weeks to complete 
them, and require especial care in the selection of the straw. They are 
extremely light, and the most durable straw hat made. The best quali- 
ties retail at $25. 

In numbering hats one "size" represents one-eighth of an inch, and 
implies that difference in the average diameter of the head. The size of 
the head (and consequently the size of hat a person will require) can be 
obtained by measuring its circumference and dividing it by 3.14. The size 
of any hat can be obtained by measuring its length and width, adding them 
together and dividing by 2. In either case the mean, or average, diameter 
is obtained. In fine silk hats the half size, or one-sixteenth is often used, 
since many heads often size up just between two regular sizes. To obtain 
the size of hat a person should wear, measure accurately around the head — 
on the line where a hat or cap is usually worn — then look for the corres- 
ponding number of inches on the scale below, and the size of the hat will 
be found opposite: 



Inches Abound the 


Size of 


Inches Abound the 


Size of 


Head. 


Hat. 


Head. 


Hat. 


18% 


6 


2234 


7H 


19*4 


65* 


22fg 


m 


19X 


6H 


23 


7% 


20 


6% 


23% 


iy» 


20% 


m 


23% 


Ws 


20& 


VA 


24 1 / 8 


i% 


21 1 /a 


m 


24i/ 2 


7% 


2iy 2 


6% 


24% 


8 


21% 


7 







Hatching. In embroidering and weaving, the art of disposing threads 
so as to give the effect of shading according to the shape and character of 
the object represented. Also, a thread made for this purpose, or such 
threads collectively. 

Haute-lisse (haute-lese). [F. haute, high; lisse, warp.] In tapestry 
weaving, wrought with the warp in a perpendicular position; distinguished 
from basse-lisse, which indicates wrought with the warp in a longitudinal 
position. 

Havelock (hav'-lock). [Named after the English general, Henry 
Ifavelock.] A cover for soldier's cap, made of light washable material, 
with a flap hanging behind to protect the neck; sometimes worn by soldiers 
and tourists when exposed to the sun in hot climates. 

Haversack. [From Ger. hafer, oats, and sack, sack.] A bag used for 
holding the food that a soldier carries on his person. It is carried by a 



190 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HEC 

strap slung over the shoulder. Also a bag made of coarse cloth used by 
school-boys for carrying their slate and books. 

Heckle. The operation of drawing flax or hemp through rough teeth 
to separate the fiber from the bark and peth. [See Flax.] 

Helix. A term used in needle-making, with reference to the manner 
in which the eye is finished. The best qualities of needles always have 
their eyes " helixed." The operation is performed by stringing the needles 
immediately after the eye has been punched out, upon a fine hard wire, 
which when set in motion causes the needles to rapidly revolve. The 
rapid revolution on the wire polishes the edges and inside of the eye, thus 
preventing the cutting of the thread in sewing. [See Needles.] 

Hemp. A valuable plant possessing properties similar to flax and 
jute, supposed to be a native of India, but long since naturalized and cul- 
tivated in many countries of Europe, particularly Russia, where it forms an 
article of primary commercial importance. It is also cultivated in different 
parts of the United States, but not in such quantities as to supersede im- 
portation. The plant is an annual, with a rough, angular stem, from four 
to twelve feet high. It is stronger and coarser in the fiber than flax, but 
its culture and management are much the same. After hemp has been 
cut down with cradles, it is spread upon the ground in October or Novem- 
ber, according to climate, and is then rotted by being exposed to the 
action of the dew and frost. This requires about two months, when the 
lint readily separates from the stalk. It is tough and strong, and peculiarly 
adapted for weaving into coarse fabrics such as sail-cloth, and twisting into 
ropes, cables and binding twine. As the ordianry material of ropes used 
for hanging, it is often the subject of humorous allusion; as hempen collar, 
the noose of the hangman's rope place around the neck; hempen widow, 
the widow of a man who has been hanged. Attempts to cultivate hemp in 
America were made early in the history of Plymouth and Virginia colonies. 
In Pennsylvania the colonial government offered bounties for its culture as 
early as 1730. These attempts were unsuccessful though of late years it 
has become a valuable agricultural product in the United States, particu- 
larly in Kentucky. It is cultivated to some extent in all the Northern 
states. Where cultivated for seed-bearing, hemp greatly exhausts the 
land. Cultivated for the fiber, it is but moderately exhaustive, and grows 
with such strength as to keep down weeds, so that it may be grown for 
many seasons on the same land. Considerable hemp plant has escaped 
from cultivation in the United States and naturalized itself on waste places 
in the vicinity of dwellings. In addition to the valuable fibre which the 
plant yields, it also furnishes two other valuable commercial products. 
One of these is the seed, which is used as food for cage-birds, and yeilds a 
large percentage of oil when pressed. This oil, of which Russia furnishes 
the principal supply, is used in the manufacture of soaps and varnishes, 
and also for burning. [See Cordage.] 



HEM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 19l 

Hemstitch. The ornamental edging in linen and cotton fabrics, par- 
ticularly handkerchiefs, produced by drawing out a few threads running 
parallel with the hem, and catching together in smaller groups those 
running the other way. 

Henrietta. [Named in honor of the gay and brilliant Henrietta 
Maria, queen of England in 1624.] A dress fabric, which, notwithstanding 
the revival of its popularity during the last few years, dates its origin well 
back into the 17th century; though the prominent position fashion has at 
present given it among fine dress goods would lead many to imagine it a 
new-comer. Formerly, Henrietta cloth was a superior black dress fabric 
of silk warp and the finest of worsted weft, but at present it is to a large 
extent made of all wool. It is woven with a twilled face and a plain back, 
and is like cashmere dress fabric in all other respects except the finish — 
being more lustrous. This lustre is due to the elaborate process of "finish- 
ing" which Henrietta undergoes after leaving the loom, consisting first of. 
scouring with hot soap suds, and stretching it on a frame to dry; then the 
whole web is carefully examined for burrs and knots, which are carefully 
removed by hand. Next the cloth is sheared or cropped, to remove the tips 
of projecting fibres which were unavoidably raised in weaving and scour- 
ing. To produce the lustre, it is now wound tightly around a huge drum 
and boiled for three hours in water, heated at a temperature of 180 degeees 
F. It is then unwound and the ends reversed, and again boiled for three 
hours. Finally it is pressed in a hydraulic press/in which the cloth is heated 
by inserting iron plates between the folds or by forcing steam through it 
while in the press; the last process adding to the smoothness and develop- 
ing the lustre characteristic of well finished Henrietta cloth. The fabric is 
known to the trade as "silk-warp" and "all wool" Henriettas. The cotton- 
and-wool twills with a "sheen" finish cannot be called Henriettas or cash- 
meres in the full meaning of these terms. They are properly coburgs. 
[See Coburg.] 

Herringbone. A style of twill-weaving, so called from its resem- 
blance to the backbone of a herring. The weave consists of a series of 
very short diagonal lines running the entire length or width of the cloth, 
contrasting with another series turned in an opposite direction, each 
arranged alternately across the entire web, forming a continuous zigzag 
pattern. 

Hickory Check. A particular style of coarse shirting, in which the 
checks are woven small and square, and of but two colors, usually blue and 
white or brown and white. The term was originally applied to this special 
style from its alleged hickory -like toughness, or superior wearing quality. 

Hindoo Silk. See Mysore, China Silk. 

Hogskin. Leather made of the hides of hogs, having a grained and 
minutely punctured surface, caused by the large pores; used for saddles 
(generally under the name of pigskin), gloves, mitts, and as an ornamental 
material for bookbinding. [See Leather.] 



192 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HOL 

Holland. A term signifying unbleached linen cloth, made in many- 
European countries, but especially in Scotland. The term also indicates a 
material used exclusively for window blinds, of which there are two kinds, 
glazed and opaque. The glazed variety is at the present time but little 
used, owing to the low price to which opaque has fallen. Opaque holland 
is woven of both linen and cotton, and is made smooth and impervious to 
the sun's rays (opaqued) by a sizing of oil and starch. In width hollands 
range from 24 to 115 inches. Brown holland 'is a plain, unsized linen cloth 
which has had little or no bleaching and retaining, therefore, more or less 
closely the natural color of the flax fiber; it is used largely in the manu- 
facture of linen dusters and for the lining of silk dresses. Prior to the in- 
troduction of cotton, holland was a fine linen fabric, one grade of which 
was used especially for shirts and collars. In the old days of grass-bleach- 
ing the linens woven in France and England were regularly sent to Hol- 
land to be bleached, on account of the bleaching greens occupying so 
much valuable lands in the former countries. For this reason, this plain- 
woven, fine-threaded variety received the name of holland. Through com- 
petiton with cotton, in the United States it in time gradually became a 
coarser and more heavily sized material, ahd finally it ceased to be used 
for its former purpose altogether. Then it entered the department of up- 
holstery, and by and by met the fate which many originally linen fabrics 
have met, the manufacturers substituting cotton, but retaining the former 
name. 

Home Weaving 1 . The operations of spinning and weaving carried on in 
dwellings, as distinguished from factory processes; hand-made goods, as 
opposed to power-loom products. It is often assumed that manufactures 
can only be successfully conducted in factories, and that modern machinery 
has quite superseded the old-fashioned, but ever deft machinery of the 
human hand and fingers. This is happily an error. Some of the most ex- 
quisite manufactures of the world are carried on by the hands of peasants 
in remote valleys and mountain solitudes. Some of the most delicate tex- 
tures of Parisian fashion are woven in the Pyrenean valleys. The cele- 
brated and unrivalled Cashmere shawls, noted for their great elaboration 
and glowing harmony of design are wrought by the patient natives of 
India in rudely constructed looms. The finest and most sumptuous 
Smyrna rugs and Persian carpets are slowly put together on a loom built 
between two trees. The most enduring blanket to be had in any country 
is woven in the remoter parts of Arizona by Navajo squaws; and it has 
been found that power looms, urged by steam or turbine, are too rough for 
the finer qualities of linen and cambric embroidery, and for this work the 
fingers of Irish peasant girls are the best of all machines. The mummy 
wrappings show that with their crude machinery the ancient Egyptians 
produced linen fabric far exceeding in fineness any cloth which we can 
produce with the most modern mechanical inventions. One piece of this 
cloth found wrapped about a mummy had 540 threads to the inch ; the 



HOM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 193 

finest ever woven in England or the United States being 350 per inch. 
There was a time in the history of our own country when the hardy pioneer 
clothed his family with better woolens and better linens, at less cost than 
the power-loom products can be bought for at the present day, at home or 
abroad. At the time referred to the power loom was not yet invented, and 
the hand-loom factories were scarce and at long distances from the settle- 
ments. With the hand loom in its simplest form, the wife and daughters 
of the household would take the yarns prepared at home, and weave such 
cloth or articles as their condition and circumstances required. For 
downright durability the cassimere and jeans, the table linen, cover- 
lets, and "butternut" of this home weaving period have never been 
equalled. However, as the new country gradually increased in population, 
farming along with other classes of business began to assume a more 
specific and limited form. With the building of towns, the settler found 
the sawing of his trees into lumber, and the clearing away of his forests 
for the greater production of stock and grain, a profitable employment. 
His time had become limited in which to prepare the yarns for his weavers. 
It was tedious and toilsome work to prepare the linen, with always more 
or less delay and uncertainty connected with harvesting, retting, heckling 
and spinning of the flax. In those early days in the heavily timbered 
portions of the country much time was also consumed in the shearing, 
washing, carding and spinning which was necessary in preparing the 
woolen yarn. The entering wedge to the breaking up and final abandon- 
ment of home weaving was the establishing of carding mills in country 
neighborhoods. These mills would take the farmers' wool and, with im- 
proved machinery, card in for him while he waited. By and by the mills 
both carded and spun the wool, the operation of weaving still being per- 
formed at home. But with new inventions for the production of cotton 
materials, which came to almost entirely supersede linen, and the greater 
improvements made in weaving processes — finally culminating in the 
power loom — by which cloth was made in a greater variety of patterns, 
and in so much less time than with their hand looms, the country mills got 
to manufacturing all sorts of cloth, yarns, blankets and flannels, and ex- 
changing them with the farmer for his raw wool. These were termed 
"factory" goods to distinguish them from the old-fashioned but ever 
durable "homespun." [See Factory.] 

Honeycomb. An ornamental weave produced in cotton and linen 
canvas by drawing the warp and weft threads so that the small lozenge- 
shaped spaces between them shall appear sunken, and the edges in relief. 
So called from a resemblance to the concave cells of a comb of honey. 

Hood. [From Anglo-saxon hod, head; whence comes also our word 
hat.] Properly a covering for the head, of soft or flexible material, but 
sometimes worn as an ornament for the back of cloaks and wraps. It is 
among the most ancient of head coverings. [See Hats and Caps.] 



194 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HOO 

Hook and Eye. A metallic fastening for garments, consisting of a 
hook, commonly made of flattened wire bent to the required shape, and an 
eye of the same material into which the hook fits. Under the name of 
crochet and loop, this form of fastening was in use in England as early as 
the fourteenth century. In this country all the hooks and eyes are made 
in New England, where until a few years ago they were fastened together 
and sewed on the cards by children at a few pennies per gross. They are 
put up one gross in a box and range in size from No. 1 small, to No. 10 
large. 

Hoopskirt. An article of feminine apparel evolved from the farthin- 
gale of the sixteenth century. The ancient farthingales were made of 
hoops of whalebone run into a cloth foundation. When first began to be 
worn they were of modest dimensions, but increased in size in 1610 until 
they were immense and ridiculous. They reached such a degree of in- 
convenience that the King of France forbid the women of his realm to 
wear farthingales more than an ell and a half in circumference, but this 
edict only had the effect of causing the dimensions to increase more and 
more. Finally in 1675 the fashion died out. Hoopskirts next came into 
feminine favor in the form of bell-shaped skirts, which were enormously 
expanded by wire hoops fastened at certain intervals upon the skirt. The 
time of its greatest extravagance was from 1750 to 1800, and continued with 
intermissions until about 1820. Then there was a cessation and hoopskirts 
slumbered until 1852, when they were again revived in the form of crino- 
line petticoats. For "crinolines" were soon substituted hoops composed 
at first of rattan, but afterwards of flat flexible steel wire, which at times 
were nearly as large as those of a century earlier. These went out of use 
again in 1870, but since 1880 have appeared spasmodically in the form of 
tilters or hoops at different periods. [See Crinoline.] 

Hose, According to the most reliable authority the use of hose or leg- 
gins, comprising in one piece all the leg-covering below the waist, origin- 
ated in Europe during the Middle Ages. The hose was afterwards sep- 
arated into breeches and stockings, which last, in the early part of the six- 
teenth century, was made of cloth, even for the use of kings and queens. 
The hose of the Middle Ages generally covered the person from the waist 
to the toe. By and by when large puffs around the hips came into fashion, 
the name of stockings, or nether stock, was assigned to the lower part of 
the tight leg covering, the loose puffs being termed "breeches." In this 
manner the old and much used word "hose" came to be retained only as 
an equivalent for stockings. In present use (whether singular or plural) 
hose denotes a covering for the lower part of the leg. It is, however, a 
commercial word, and applies properly only to the article as exhibited for 
sale in dry good stores. Thus a customer may purchase " hose," but after 
having put them on they become stockings or socks. That which women 
wear are stockings; men wear socks — though both when purchased, are 
hose. 



HOS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 195 

In the manufacture of hose they are either "common cut," "seamless," 
"full-fashioned" or "full regular," for the definition of which terms see 
Hosiery and Knit Goods. Balbriggan hose is a brown or unbleached 
variety of which the threads are unusually hard, having very little nap or 
wooly surface. Lisle-thread hose are knit of an extremely fine hard- 
twisted thread, made of superior cotton, treated in a peculiar manner. 
Cotton fibre possesses naturally a waxy surface, which, if not destroyed in 
manufacture, gives a brilliant appearance to the fabric. " Carding " im- 
pairs the effect, but " combing " conserves it. Carding leaves the fibres in 
a jumble and cris-cross, while combing lays them straight, side by side. 
The latter process secures a stronger yarn and a more glossy one, though 
expensive. The spinning of lisle thread is done under moisture, thus 
forming a compact and solid yarn, with a surface capable of exhibiting the 
colors applied to it with a brilliancy unapproached by a softer yarn. Lisle 
thread also makes a more elastic hose, the threads sliding more easily in 
the mesh. If properly made and of good material, lisle hose are very 
durable; but like all other fabrics, the genuine article is often counter- 
feited and imitated. Good goods always possess s silky brilliancy, and a 
gritty linenish feel. There are no lisle goods made in in this country ex- 
cept a few "common cut," at about $1.25 per dozen, the fine goods being 
imported from Europe. British hose are so called from being imported 
from England. They are a firm, stout-made, half -hose, stained a yellow 
color which does not fade or bleach out. Until lately the best cotton hose 
knitted in the United States averaged in price from $2.00 to $2.50 per dozen. 
Our manufactures can knit finer hose, but heretofore it has been im- 
possible to sell them in competition with the imported goods. The finest 
silk hose in the world is now made by three different companies in this 
country. Ladies' goods range in price from $18 to $36 a dozen. All 
hosiery is to be judged by the fineness of t:he thread and the closeness of 
the texture, which may be partly appreciated by weighing, as it were, the 
articles in the hand. In ribbed hose a deception is sometimes practiced, 
against which it is necessary to guard. The spaces between the ribs, which 
ought to be formed by an inversion of the stitch, contains no stitch at all, 
but an open range of threads, pervious to the weather and utterly destitute 
of durability. As ribs of stockings exposed to sale are necessarily almost 
in contact, the fault cannot be detected without introducing the hand and 
opening the tissue, when it will be instantly apparent. The standard 
length of ladies' hose is twenty-seven inches, though frequently in cheap 
foreign stuff it will be found they have been reduced to twenty-five and 
even twenty-four inches. In numbering hose one " size " is one-half inch 
in the length of the foot. Between this fact and the shoe sizes some Con- 
fusion arises in people's minds, since in shoe sizes a full size means a 
difference of one-third of an inch in length. This is not expressed as one- 
third but in even numbers, six, seven, eight, nine and ten. These figures do 
not represent the actual length of the foot, as do hose sizes. Ladies' 



196 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HOS 

hose range in size from eight to eleven. Men's sizes run from nine to 
twelve, representing the actual length of the foot. [See Appendix "A."] 

Hosier (ho ' -zher). Formerly the term hosier was applied to tailors 
who sold men's garments ready-made. In its more modern use hosier has 
been restricted in its meaning to one who deals in hose, or in knitted goods, 
such as undergarments, jerseys, cardigans, stockinet, fancy knit goods, etc. 

Hosiery and Knit Goods. Under this head is embraced a wide range 
of manufactured textiles, which are classed together more on account of 
their manner of fabrication than from simularity of use. The term 
"hosiery," as is quite obvious, has its origin in hose or stockings; but al- 
though stockings continue to be one of the staples of hosiery, that depart- 
ment is only one of a great number constituting the entire industry, there 
being not fewer than 5,000 distinct articles made in the trade. All kinds of 
hosiery proper are made by the process of knitting, the peculiarity of 
which consists in the use of a single thread for the entire texture, and in 
the formation therewith of a singularly elastic, yet strong and firm looped 
web. It is not known precisely when or where the art of knitting stockings 
originated; much, however, has been learned concerning ancient arts and 
industries from the study of Egyptian excavations, which have also estab- 
lished the antiquity of many industries, of the early history of which very 
little has hitherto been known. Among the most interesting relics of early 
Egyptian life are the well preserved mummies of the dead. It is, perhaps, 
not generally known that in addition to that of embalming, weaving, etc., 
these mummies established the antiquity of knitting. In these graves have 
been found several pairs of knitted stockings, resembling socks, worn by 
the ancient Egyptians. These curious stockings are knitted in a very 
clever manner and the material, fine wool of sheep that might once of been 
white, is now brown with age. The needles with which the woik was done 
must have been a little thicker than would be chosen nowadays for 
the same purpose, and the knitting is loose and elastic. Knit worsted 
stockings are also said to have been made in the Pyrenees for centuries, 
and stocking-frames were not allowed to be erected there, lest they should 
interfere with the ancient industry. Prior to the introduction of hand knit- 
ting in Europe, men as well as women wore stockings made of cloth. In 
1560, a pair of black silk stockings knit in England was presented to 
Queen Elizabeth by her silk woman, Mrs. Montague, from which time the 
queen refused to wear cloth hose. Hand-knitting became a fashionable 
employment with ladies of rank, as well as a common occupation of the 
rural and humbler classes. The Shetland Isles, which were famous for their 
fine wool, became celebrated for the beauty and excellence of their knit 
fabrics, and it is said that a lady of these islands, at a later period, knit a 
pair of stockings of such fineness that they could be drawn through her 
finger ring. 

The present extended manufacture and use throughout the world of 



HOS COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 197 

knit fabrics illustrate forcibly the far-reaching influences of a single useful 
invention. The common broad stocking frame, or loom, for knitting plain 
hosiery, that is, a straight knitted strip of any desired length, which 
throughout Europe soon superseded knitting by hand, was invented by the 
Rev. William Lee, of Woodborough, England, about the year 1589. This 
remarkably ingenious, but complex and cumbersome machine, was the re- 
sult of several years' intense toil and study. It was first set up at Notting- 
ham, where the inventor, in 1597, had nine machines in successful opera- 
tion. It was afterward carried upon the backs of eight men to London and 
operated before the court, but failed to secure encouragement or patronage 
from the aged queen, or of her narrow-minded successor, James I, who 
either did not preceive its future usefulness and importance to his subjects, 
or feared the innovation would be dangerous to the poor hand-knitters. 
Henry IV, of France, or his enlightened prime minister, Sully, was more 
sagacious, and by his invitation Lee transferred his machines to that coun- 
try and established his manufactory at Rouen, with success. After the 
assassination of his royal patron in 1610, Lee was forced by religious 
persecution prompted by jealousy, to abandon his new field and go in con- 
cealment to Paris, where he afterwards died of disappointment. Thus 
ended the vicissitudinous career of the man of whom much romance has 
been woven — or more appropriately — knitted. Lee, who was a man of re- 
markable culture as well as talent, was a fellow of St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge, Eng. Tradition attributes the origin of his invention to a pique he 
had taken against a townswoman with whom he was in love and who neg- 
lected or spurned his passion. The statement is that she got her liveli- 
hood by knitting stockings, and that to destroy her employment he con- 
structed this frame and instructed her brother and other relatives how to 
work it. Another and more probable account is, however, quite different 
but the element of romance is retained. The best authorities on the sub- 
ject represent that Lee was expelled from college for marrying the woman 
of his choice, in violation of some absured law of that institution, and that 
the pair being reduced to abject poverty through the harsh decree, the faith- 
ful wife contributed to the support of the little family by knitting stockings 
for the market, then a very general employment with the lower and middle 
classes. It was while sitting beside this gentle knitter, engaged in watch- 
ing the movement of her needles, as they passed in and out, that the bright 
intelligence of the learned outcast conceived the idea of the principle of 
the knitting-frame. 

Soon after Lee's death in Paris, one of his apprentices, named Ashton, 
escaping to England, remounted the stocking frame and once more estab- 
lished the hosiery manufacture at Nottingham and Derby, where it has ever 
sinceflourished. Theknitting machine at this time produced simply a straight 
knitted strip, which was cut in proper lengths and sewed together to form 
the stocking or other articles made of it. Many improvements have since 
been made, an important one being the circular loom, by which a contin- 



198 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. HOS 

uous circular web may be knit of any length. This is cut off at proper dis- 
tances and "formed " or "pressed" into the shape of a stocking. The 
shaping of the web to fit the foot is a matter of no little ingenuity. The 
flat web is knit in long strips of sufficient width to make several stockings, 
which are cut out over patterns on stretching-boards, and neatly united at 
the heel and around the edges by hand-knitting or machine sewing. In the 
case of " full regular" goods the edges of the web are connected by hand, 
the loops on either side being so neatly taken up and joined as to leave no 
welt whatever and but slight evidence of a seam. In forming the foot to 
the circular or seamless web, a slit is made just above where the heel is to 
be, half-way across the web, which allows the part designed for the foot 
being curved up at the instep and to assume the natural shape. The loops 
along the edges are then taken up on hand-needles and the space for the 
heel is filled out by hand-knitting. In the same manner the toe is com- 
pleted, and thus is finished a seamless stocking. On other circular 
machines the entire stocking is knitted and then dampened and pressed in 
proper form. Those, however, that have been pressed into shape lose their 
contour after the first washing. Hence it has been a problem for inventors 
for many years to invent an appliance to the knitting-frame that would 
produce a fu 11-/ as hioned stocking; that is, a stocking swelling at the calf, 
narrowing at the ankle and a perfect foot. An automatic machine for this 
purpose has been patented in the last few years, and performs the work 
perfectly. When the stocking is completed, the machine stops automati- 
cally, breaks the thread and is again ready for the next. One boy can attend 
half a dozen of these. It produces several different styles of heel and toe, 
and overcomes the difficulty of narrowing the ankle and instep and widen- 
ing the leg. These recent improvements in the mechanism have given a 
vast impulse to the stocking manufacture by greatly reducing the cost and 
proportionately extending the demand, introducing the articles where they 
were before unknown, or hand-knit by members of the household. 

Twenty-five years ago a workman with one of the old hand-power 
frames could make in a week only about one dozen cotton hose, weighing 
two pounds. The same labor now applied to a set of the best knitting frames 
easily produces in the same time, from three hundred pounds of cotton, 200 
dozen hose. A clever hand knitter if assidious, will knit 100 loops a minute, 
while the machine knitter will knit of the finest textures in various colors 
250,000 loops a minute — an advance of 25,000 fold upon the hand knitter. 
Chemnitz, Germany, is the center of the largest hosiery and knit goods in- 
dustry in the world, and is intimately associated with the hosiery trade of 
the United States. Eighty per cent of all the knit goods manufactured at 
Chemnitz is bought by the United States. Chemnitz sends more cotton 
hosiery to this country than England sends to the four quarters of the 
globe. The business is done in a peculiar way. The goods, before reach- 
ing the buyer, pass through many hands. Throughout a large district, 
many square miles in extent, are scattered the dwellings of the singel 



HOU COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 199 

weavers, the "household industry" people. These receive the yarn from a 
factor, knit the stockings or gloves, jackets or underwear and return them 
to the factor, who sells them to the manufacturer. The manufacturer 
"fashions" them and then turns them over to the dyer. After dyeing they 
are glaced, stamped, and packed in boxes and turned over to the agent, 
who in his turn sends them to a commission house in the United States, or, 
else sells them direct to the American jobbers visiting the German market. 
For seven miles along the roads leading from Chemnitz one house joins 
another; and in every house there is from one to four knitting machines. 
These people make the bulk of the knit goods worn in this "land of the free 
and home of the brave." 

The principal seats of the hosiery industry in the United States are 
Waterbury, Conn., Cohoes, N. Y., Brooklyn and Seneca Falls, N. Y., New- 
ark, N. J., and Philadelphia, Pa. [See Hose.] 

Housewife's Cloth. A linen cloth of medium quality, between fine 
and coarse, for family uses. It is in very limited demand at present, hav- 
ing made way for cotton upon the latter's introduction at the close of the 
eighteenth century. 

Huckaback (huck'-a-back). [A corruption of huckster-back, which 
in early times signified any sort of "pedler's ware." Often shortened to 
huck.] A coarse and very durable cloth of linen, or linen and cotton, 
woven with alternate elevations and depressions, so as to present a rough 
face. It is used especially for towels and is made in separate towels or in 
lengths which may be cut at will. Huckaback is also made of all cotton 
woven with a honeycomb pattern. 



Illusion. A thin and very transparent kind of tulle; silk bobbinet. 
[See Tulle.] 

Imports. Goods brought to this from a foreign country. Importa- 
tions into the United States can be made only at ports of entry constituted 
by law. All goods so imported must be entered at a custom-house by pre- 
senting a bill of lading, and an invoice duly certified by the United States 
Consul at the port from whence they are shipped; also a sworn descrip- 
tion of the goods by the importer. If the goods are free of duty, a permit 
to land is immediately issued, subject to official inspection and verification 
of the goods. If the goods are dutiable the tariff is estimated at the 
custom-house and paid in coin or government notes. A permit is then is- 
sued to send one or more packages to the government appraiser for ex- 
amination, (to determine whether they have been invoiced properly) the 
balance of the goods being delivered to the importer under bond to pro- 
duce them should the examination of the samples show discrepancies. If 



200 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



IMP 



the appraiser finds them to have been undervalued, the goods are 
subject to merely the additional tariff on the excess. Any fraudulent un- 
dervaluation involves the confiscation of the goods concerned. To interior 
ports goods may be transported in bond, directly from the importing ves- 
sel. There are custom houses in all the large cities of the United States. 
The following table shows the value of imports entered during the three 
years ending Oct. 1st 1891; also the value of articles free of duty, and the 
value of those on which there is a tariff: 





FREE OF DUTY. 


VALUES 
DUTIABLE. 


TOTAL. 


TOTAL DUTIES 
COLLECTED. 


V A' 


$258,562,64186 


$490,661,118 70 


$749,223,360 55 




Total Sept. 30, 1889 


$217,389,400 95 


Per cent, free and 


34.51 


65.40 












Total Sept. 30, 1890 


$279,251,684 36 


$521,621,989 54 


$800,874,672 90 


$237,284,340 95 


Per cent, free and 


34.87 


65.14 












Total Sept. 30, 1891 


$419,465,439 97 


$413,203,165 18 


$832,668,605 15 


$193,040,020 49 


Per cent, free and 
dutiable --. 


50.38 


49.62 







Inca. [From Inca the name of the prince who governed Peru, S. A., 
previous to the Spanish conquest.] A term given about 1850 to several 
varieties of alpaca dress goods. Alpaca wool at the present time is nearly 
all obtained from South America, much of it from the " land of the Incas " 
(Peru). 

India Linon. [French /men.] A variety of clear, white lawn, put 
up bookfold, and woven of very fine cotton yarns. The chief difference 
between India linon and Victoria lawns lies in the former being a somewhat 
lighter weight fabric, and having a larger number of counts per inch. 

India Rubber. An elastic, gummy substance, consisting of the 
coagulated milky juice of various trees and shrubs found in Central and 
South America and Africa. This juice is contained chiefly in the middle 
layer of the bark, in a network of tubes, and in its natural state is of a 
pale yellow color of the thickness of cream. The natives tap the trees of 
mornings and during the day half a pint of the fluid is received in a clay 
cup placed at the trunk. This at once begins to harden, which is hastened 
by exposure to the smoke and heat of a fire. The Amazon valley, gener- 
ally known as North Brazil, comprises an area almost as extensive as that 
part of the United States east of the Rocky mountains. It is probably the 
richest valley in natural and agricultural resources on the globe, extending 
on a line with the equator almost 2 000 miles due westward to the base of 
the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. Practically nothing is produced in this 
valley, because the gathering of rubber is more profitable than anything 
else. Everything necessary to sustain civilized life is imported, princi- 



IND COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 201 

pally from Europe. Two-thirds of the rubber exported goes to the United 
States. The natives sell it for about twelve cents a pound to the merchants 
of Para, but its value on reaching this county is about 50 cents a pound; 
though the top grades often fetch as high as 95 cents a pound. The rub- 
ber forests of Brazil will ultimately be exhausted, owing to the reckless 
mode followed by the tappers. The ordinary product of a tapper's work 
is from 10 to 16 pounds daily. There are merchantable in New York 
between 30 and 40 sorts and grades of India rubber, the variations deter- 
mining the selection by manufacturers in the purchase of stocks. Of course 
rubber in all its variations is essentially the same, differing somewhat in 
the same degree as a pumpkin in Dakota differs from that in New England — 
one large and the other small, one with little flavor and the other rich in food 
qualities. The difference between sorts of rubber, however, is due in large 
measure to the methods employed in gathering the sap. It happens 
that the natives of the Amazon valley have always taken pains in the 
curing of rubber. While climatic conditions in that country may have 
had some influence upon the quality of " Para, " the condition in which 
this rubber is exported has become a prime factor in making it a favorite 
with the manufacturers. On the other hand, some of the African sorts are 
so full of bark and stones as to make them almost unfit for use. At one 
time the African rubber was almost unmarketable in New York, the price 
s nking as low as 10 cents per pound, and not wanted at that. One factory, 
after long experimenting, discovered a chemical solution in which the 
rubber was washed, the process being that the bark and other impurities 
abso.bed the chemicals making them so heavy that they separated from 
the gum and fell to the bottom and away. This company made a fortune 
in a moderate space of time, but the price of African rubber gradually 
went up, from the fact of their creating a demand for it until the profits 
became comparatively small, when they disposed of the privilege of 
washing to some leading rubber factories, who use the process at the pres- 
ent day. 

As the raw India rubber is unloaded on the piers at New York it is in 
the form of balls, or shapeless lumps, and in this condition it is received 
by the rubber factories. At the factory these lumps are first placed in a 
vat of boiling water and softened, next sent to the masticating machine, 
where it is ground up very fine and mixed with sulphur. After being several 
times passed through this machine, which is built on the principal of a 
"sausage grinder," the rubber is worked through heavy smooth rollers 
under an enormous pressure, which packs it together in the form of a sheet 
or mat, about the size and thickness of cow-hide. This sheet is then 
thoroughly dried, which requires from 4 to 6 weeks. Next it is passed 
through a series of very hot rollers, until it is sufficiently pliable to admit 
of being spread upon cotton cloth. This operation is performed between 
two iron cylinders, the pliable rubber being run in over one and the cloth 
over the other, the heavy weight forcing it thoroughly into the meshes of 



202 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. IND 

the cloth. In this manner, rubber, or rubber cloth, of any desired thickness 
can be produced by simply regulating the distance between the iron cylinder 
from a thin gassamer tissue to a heavy boot sole. About 70 per cent of pure 
rubber is contained in the manufactured article. There are 120 india-rubber 
factories in the United States, employing 15,000 operators, who produce 
280,000 tons of goods, valued at $260,000,000 per annum. This includes 
twenty rubber boot and shoe factories, each with a capacity of about 25,000 
pairs of rubbers per day, whose products are shipped to almost every 
country in the world. 

The remarkable substance known as india-rubber is composed of car- 
bon and hydrogen alone, but its exact chemical nature is not by any means 
known with certainty. It was long used for various minor purposes before 
its valuable commercial qualities were appreciated. The French in 1751, 
first gave the matter particular attention, and in 1767 England issued a 
patent for making waterproof clothing; in 1825 a merchant of Boston in- 
troduced the original Para overshoe in its rough state, as made by the 
natives of the province of Para, Brazil, S. A. It was in this year that the 
wonderful capacities of the strange product began to be known, and the 
commercial world realized the fact that a new force had entered the indus- 
trial field, which was destined to play an important part in the arts and 
manufactures of the nineteenth century. To Charles Goodyear is due the 
credit of having devoted much time and money in experiments and im- 
provements in the manufacture of rubber goods, and although he reaped 
no pecuniary reward from his patents, and though the French and English 
stole outright his invention of the vulcanizing process, their courts mani- 
festing the greatest partiality and dishonesty in deciding against him, yet 
all countries and all consumers are indebted to Chas. Goodyear for bring- 
ing the manufacture of rubber to its present state of perfection. [See Rub- 
bers, Mackintosh.] 

India Shawls. Another name for Cashmere shawls. India has been 
famous from time immemorial for the production of that most elegant arti- 
cle of dress — the shawl. Some of them are, indeed, of a value which 
appears almost fabulous. Two to three thousand dollars are not thought 
an extravagant price, even in India, for a genuine cashmere, and there may 
be seen on the shoulders of many a fashionable lady in New York India 
scarfs purchased at a cost of over $5,000. And this value would be greatly 
enhanced were the workmen paid at all according to the American scale of 
wages; but the men employed in fabricating these splendid articles rarely 
earn more than a couple of annes a day (6 cents). These shawls possess a 
peculiar harmony of coloring which is combined with a brilliancy that 
neither Europe nor America can approach. The real cashmere or India 
shawl is produced in the valley of Cashmere and also in Panjab. It is 
made from the fine downy wool found about the roots of the hair of the 
wild goat of Thibet and the Himalayas. Some very rich and exquisite imj- 



IND COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 203 

tations of these costly fabrics are now made in France. [See Cashmere 
Shawls.] 

India Silks. Among the many varieties of silks manufactured in 
India, five may be more especially designated as entering more or less 
extensively the markets of the United States. India silks are classed as 
the "cultivated" and the "wild." Among the former are imported the 
Corah, Mysore, Nagpore and Rumchunder ; and from the latter category, 
or "wild" silks, the Tusore, otherwise called Tiisah and Tusar. The Kin- 
cobs are satin textiles decorated with designs in gold flowers and are em- 
ployed for ladies' skirts; the Mushroos have a surface of silk, but a cotton 
back, and are decorated with loom embroidered flowers. The silk brocades 
are very beautiful, being manufactured at Trichinapoly. The most costly 
examples of these brocaded India silks are massively embroidered with 
gold and with silk stripes; the costliest of all, being produced at Hyder- 
bad, are very striking in appearance, having wavy stripes of rich yellow 
pink and a white combined with gold. Silk stuff manufactured for trouser- 
ing for home wear is said to be produced of the slightest texture, nine 
yards of some of which would scarcely weigh as many ounces. 

Indigo. A well-known and exceedingly valuable blue dyeing substance. 
It has been in use in Europe since the First century, being mentioned by 
Pliny as indicum. When it made its appearance in England it was termed 
indico. As a commercial material, indigo is entirely obtained from the 
vegetable plant called indigofera, which grows from a height of 4 to 5 feet, 
producing an abundance of leaves. It is in the leaves that the indigo- 
yielding principle chiefly resides, and these are most gorged with it at the 
period when the flower-buds are about to open. It is then that the plant is 
cut down, in India the same stalk yeilding in one year the second and 
even the third crop of stems and leaves. The method of preparing indigo 
in Bengal where the best quality is at present made, is to take the fresh 
green stems and leaves and beat and bruise them, after which they are 
fermented in vats of water, depositing a blue substance which is collected 
and dried in the form of the square cakes seen in commerce. Indigo sells 
in India at the rate of 97 cents to $1.80 per pound, depending on the 
quality and the state of the market. The different qualities of indigo which 
come to this country are classified according to their sources, as follows: 
Bengal, Gautemala, Java, Mexico and Brazil. The indigo imported into 
the United States in 1887 amounted to 2,961,453 pounds; in 1888, 3,466,665 
pounds; in 1889, 3,161,084 pounds; in 1890, 3,550,871 pounds. 

Indigo once and for a considerabte period formed one of the staple 
exports of this country, while now it is one of the heaviest articles of im- 
port. It has been manufactured in America from the earliest days of its 
discovery; it was commonly used in Mexico when that land first became 
known to European nations, and was afterwards extensively cultivated by 
the Spaniards in Central America, In the early days of the West India 



204 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. IND 

colonies it was an article of great export. The island of Jamaica was very 
successful in its cultivation. Indeed, such attention did the West India 
planters pay to the dye that their indigo was sought after in Europe in 
preference to that of old India. The dye rose to such eminence as an article 
of trade, that the British Parliament in keeping with its usual hoggishness, in 
the year 1745, with the view of securing a large revenue, laid the heavy tax 
of 75 cents per pound on all the indigo manufactured in their West Indian 
colonies. From this date the cultivation declined. It was a case of goose 
and golden egg, being literally killed out of the country by over-taxation, 
and, although the tariff was repealed finally and a bounty of 12 cents per 
pound was offered by the home legislature the industry never regained its 
former position. In the Colonial days of America, from 1747 to 1792, the 
Southern States produced vast quantities of first-quality indigo. It was to 
Carolina and Georgia what tobacco was to Virginia — their principal agri- 
cultural product. In 1790 the Southern Colonies supplied Europe with the 
same amount of indigo that Bengal did — about 600,000 pounds. About the 
year 1800 the export of this dye stuff almost ceased, owing to the impetus 
Whitney's cotton gin had given the cotton industry. In 1802 indigo began 
to be imported into America from Bengal, the cultivation of cotton having 
driven out the once flourishing indigo industry in the short space of ten 
years. 

Indigo is the most important of all coloring matters both as regards 
the large quantity and monetary value of what is produced and sold, as 
well as the permanency of the dye colors which it yields. Indigo is distin- 
guished from nearly all other coloring matters by its complete insolubility 
in water. The only real solvent for it is acetic acid mixed with a little sul- 
phuric acid, from which water precipitates it unchanged, but this solvent is 
inapplicable for dyeing. Complete solubility is an essential condition for 
dyeing, and a means was found to obtain satisfactory solutions of indigo 
by circuitous methods which involve the temporary destruction of its blue 
color and a change of its chemical composition. By various deoxidizing 
agents, indigo-blue is changed into a white substance (called indigo-white) 
which dissolves readily in all alkaline liquids, forming a colorless or 
slightly yellow solution. On exposure to the air the solution yields the 
insoluble blue indigo, and permanently dyes any fabric or fiber that has 
been saturated with it. This is the only case in which such a method of 
dyeing is followed, and on that account it possesses much interest. The 
number of successive dips that a piece of cloth undergoes varies according 
to the shade of blue which the dyer desires. The more "dips" the more 
permanent the color becomes and the darker the shade. 

Indigo Blue Calico. A fine blue color, which is produced upon cotton 
by placing in an immense vat 2,000 gallons of water, 20 pounds of ground 
indigo, 30 pounds of iron filings, 30 pounds of powdered zinc, and 30 pounds 
of lime. A length of calico is then dipped into the vat for 15 minutes, 
taken put and exposed to the air for 5 minutes. The piece of calico which 



ING COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 205 

is white when it comes out of the vat gradually becomes green and then 
blue, owing to the oxygen of the air oxidizing the white-indigo and trans- 
forming it into blue, which is insoluble in water and "fixed" on the calico. 
The number of dips the cloth receives is owing to the particular shade of 
blue the printer requires. 

Patterns on indigo blue prints are produced by discharging the blue 
with a bleaching liquor. The pattern to be discharged is cut out on two 
metal plates; several thicknesses of cloth are placed between these plates 
and an immense pressure applied, the liquor being run in on the upper- 
most plate, which is grooved to receive it. The pressure on the cloth 
makes clean work by preventing the spreading of the liquor, and the liquor 
destroys the blue color in all those parts where the patterns in the plates 
allow it to circulate, thus producing the white figure. If any other color 
than white is desired, it only remains to print it on over the white pattern 
that has been discharged from the blue ground. The chemical liquor used 
to discharge the blue color (in order to produce the white pattern) is some- 
times very injurious to the cloth, the discharged portions rotting and wear- 
ing out much sooner than the solid blue ground. [See Indigo, Bandanna, 
Turkey Red, Calico.] 

Ingrain. [From in (the) grain.) A term used to describe textile 
fabrics dyed before being woven; dyed in the yarn or thread before being 
manufactured. The cotton calico called Turkey red and red marking 
cotton are also called ingrain. [See Carpet.] 

Inventory (in ' -ven-tory). An itemized descriptive list of articles, 
such as goods and chatties; specifically a formal list of moveables, as of 
the goods or wares of a merchant. Benefit of Inventory- is a legal phrase 
signifying the limit of liability of an executor in respect of debts of the 
deceased, by making and filing an inventory showing the value of the 
assests coming into his hands. [See Schedule.] 

Invoice. [From French envois, plural of envoy, a sending, conveyance.] 
A written account, or letter of advice of the particulars of merchandise 
shipped or sent to a purchaser, consignee or factor, with the prices and 
charges annexed. The word does not carry a necessary implication of 
ownership. In United States tariff law, an invoice sent from abroad is re- 
quired to be made in triplicate and signed and dated by the seller of the 
merchandise described therein, and subsequently verified by the American 
Consul or Commercial agent of the United States in the country of ship- 
ment. The three invoices are classified as original, or the importer's the 
duplicate, which is retained by the consul who verified it, and the triplicate, 
which is forwarded to the collector of the port in this country. [See Im- 
ports.] 

Italian Cloth. A kind of jean, woven with a satin face, made of cotton 
and wool, cotton and mohair, and all cotton, used exclusively for lining and 
measuring one yard in width. In price these goods range from twenty-two 



206 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. JAC 

and one-half to fifty-five cents. Italian cloth is extensively produced in this 
country, there being one mill in Maine devoted exclusively to the manufact- 
ure, but the American do not compare in point of finish to the imported 
goods. Cotton Italian cloth made in England has a high, soft, glossy finish 
with a feel of wool that would bother even an expert. In low-priced goods 
the domestic manufacturers control the market to the extent of the supply, 
but fine qualities are all obtained from Manchester, England. 

Ivory Nut. The seed of a low growing palm native to South America. 
The seeds grow in clusters, from four to nine together. Each seed is about 
as large as a hen's egg. When dried, the grain is very hard, resembling the 
finest ivory in texture and color; it is hence called vegetable ivory, and is 
often wrought into ornamental work and buttons. [See Buttons.] 



Jacket. A short coat or body garment; any garment for the body com- 
ing not lower than the hips. In the United States a waist coat or vest. A 
lady's sacque is also sometimes called a jacket. Jackets for boys through- 
out the first half of the nineteenth century came only to tke waist, whether 
buttoned up or left open in front, and a similar garment, called a "waist," 
is still worn by men in certain trades or occupations. Short outer garments 
designed for protection from the weather and worn by men of rough occu- 
pations are called jackets; as a monkey jacket, zouave jacket, cardigan 
jacket, smoking jacket. 

Jack-Towel. A coarse towel for general use, hanging from a roller. 

Jaconet (jack'-o-net). A thin, soft variety of muslin used for making 
dresses, neckcloths, fancy articles, etc., heavier than cambric. The finer 
qualities are woven even throughout, and are free from starch or other 
dressing, the gloss being produced by calendering (which see). A cotton 
cloth dyed in solid colors and glazed on one side is also termed jaconet. 

Jacquard, Joseph M . The inventor of the apparatus which bears his 
name. This is not a loom, but an appendage to looms, which, in the weav- 
ing of figured fabrics, automatically selects the warp threads and raises 
them when necessary. It was the damask loom that made possible the 
Jacquard. In fact, the main difference in them is that in the one human 
skill and patience accomplish what the other does automatically. The 
damask weaver puts in thread after thread by hand — over, under, through 
warp as the pattern requires. The Jacquard loom has weighted strings 
passing over a pulley to fall upon perforated cards. Each motion changes 
their position and lets some weights go through the holes and draws up the 
warp threads so as to be skipped by the woof, while others strike the card 
and leave their strands in place to be regularly woven. The invention has 
been applied to many branches of weaving, and has worked wonderful 
improvement in all. Jacquard was the son of a poor silk weaver of Lyons, 



JAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 207 

and was born in 1752. He was first employed as a bookbinder, afterwards 
as a type-founder and cutter; but, on the death of his mother, he assisted 
his father in weaving, and, finally, when he inherited a small patrimony on 
his father's death, he used it in setting up a silk factory. This proved 
unsuccessful, mainly because his time was spent in attempting various 
improvements in the processes with which he was acquainted. For want 
of a better occupation he was at last forced to become a lime-burner and 
afterwards a charcoal-burner, while his wife supported herself at Lyons by 
plaiting straw. The machine which afterwards rendered him famous is 
said to have been conceived in 1790, but its execution was delayed by the 
breaking out of the Revolution, which drove him into the ranks, first of the 
insurgents, and then those of the Army of the Rhine. After seeing some 
active service, in which his young son was shot down by his side, Jacquard 
again returned to Lyons where he succeeded in finding work. He saw in 
an English newspaper that a Society of Arts had offered a prize to any one 
who should invent a plan for weaving nets by machinery. He set his wits 
to work, and, for his own amusement, soon produced a loom adapted to the 
purpose, but he made no attempt to obtain the reward, and after showing 
his invention to a friend, put it aside, and for sometime it was forgotten by 
him. To his surprise he was one day sent for by the prefect of the depart- 
ment, who inquired about the machine and requested him to make another, 
the original having been lost or destroyed. This he did, and a few weeks 
later he was summoned to Paris and introduced to Bonaparte. " Are you 
the man," asked Carnot, minister, "who pretends to do what God Almighty 
cannot do — tie a knot in a stretched string?" Jacquard answered that he 
could do, not what God could not do, but what God had taught him to do. 
He still labored at his silk weaving machines, and in 1801 a medal was 
awarded him for an invention which he exhibited in Paris, whereby one 
workman per loom was dispensed with in the weaving of figured silks. He 
was summoned to Paris again, and explained his device to Napoleon, who 
rewarded him with a pension of a thousand crowns, gave him employment 
in the Conservatory des Arts, and thus enabled him to exercise his ingenuity 
in other ways. At the conservatory was stationed a loom of Vaucanson's, 
which suggested various important improvements in his own, and which he 
perfected in its final and present state in 1803. 

The Emperor encouraged the owners of silk factories to adopt the 
new loom, and many were set up at Lyons during the early part of 1804. 
To Jacquard's consternation the new invention was fiercely opposed by the 
silk weavers, many of whom it threatened to deprive of a livelihood. The 
Conseil des Prud' hommes, which in our age might be described as a com- 
pany of "walking delegates," and whose business it was to watch over the 
interests of the Lyonese trade, siezed his machines and made kindling 
wood and scrap-iron out of them in the Public Place; "the iron ^to use 
Jacquard's own expression) was sold for iron — the wood for wood, and he, 
its inventor, was delivered over to universal ignominy." The invention was 



208 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. JAC 

too valuable not to have found its way into other countries, which, by its 
means were enabled to rival, and even surpass the products of the French 
looms. Then it was that the Lyonese weavers saw the folly of their op- 
position, and condescended to adopt the invention of the man they had so 
cruelly persecuted. Many years before his death, which occurred in 1834, 
the inventor had the satisfaction of seeing his loom in almost universal use, 
and, as a consequence, his native city rapidly advancing. The Jac- 
quard apparatus is now extensively used throughout the whole of the silk, 
worsted and cotton manufacturing districts of France, England and Amer- 
ica. In 1876 a French manufacturing firm produced one of the most ex- 
traordinary specimens of silk weaving that probably has ever been exe- 
cuted. It is a portrait of Jacquard woven on a white ground with colored 
silks, representing that extraordinary man in his workshop, surrounded by 
his implements, and planning the construction of that beautiful machinery 
which now in its increased perfection returns a fitting testimony to the 
genius of the inventor. The work was woven with such truth and delicacy 
as to resemble a fine line engraving. There were a thousand threads in 
each square inch, French, in both warp and weft. 

The Jacquard loom is used solely for weaving figured goods. In this 
loom a chain of perforated cards is made to pass over a drum, and the 
strings by which the threads of the warp are raised, pass over an edge with 
a wire or leaden weight of small diameter suspended from each. These 
weights at each stroke of the loom are presented to each successive card 
and some of them are intercepted by the card while others pass through 
the holes therein, the latter thus determining which threads of the warp 
shall be raised. In this way the figure of the card determines the nature 
of the figure on the fabric. [See Loom, Weaving.] 

Janus cloth. [From Ja,7ius, a god in Roman mythology, who is repre- 
presented as having two faces]. A textile fabric, the color of one face of 
which is different from that of the other; used for reversible garments. 

Janus cord. A kind of rep, made of woolen and cotton, the cord or 
rib showing on both sides alike. 

Japanese printing. The Japanese people continue to follow at pres- 
ent, as they have followed in the past for unknown centuries, the primitive 
method of printing the pattern upon their fabrics by hand. The 
work of printing is all done in rude sheds, the roofs of which are thatched 
with straw. The sheds are open on three sides to admit of plenty of light, 
and are filled with rows of long tables upheld by low trestles. On these 
are spread smoothly the silk or cotton fabrics to be printed with ga'ly 
colored patterns. Several men and boys, dressed in the short breeches and 
blue cotton jacket of the Jap workman, on the back of which is printed a 
big red sign or seal denoting the "master" for whom they work, bend low 
over the tables in performing the work. The machinery used consists solely 
of a few stencil plates, brushes and saucers of fluid paints, and the human 



JAP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 209 

hand — the most obedient and succesful of all machines, when guided by 
the mind of the artist-workman. A stencil plate is temporarily fixed by 
brad awls to the cloth, and with a flat bladed knife a paste of rice and flour 
is spread rapidly and evenly over the surface of the plate. The paste passes 
onto the cloth through the pattern cut out of the stencil plate, and thus 
covers the part or parts intended to be left white in the design. The plate 
is then removed and the paste is allowed to dry. Thus the workman passes 
down the long table, which is the length of an entire piece of cloth, and 
using the same stencil plate, he quickly covers over the intended white 
spaces throughout the whole extent of the cloth. A series of stencil plates 
are then used in succession in order to draw in the outlines, and put in the 
colors and shades of the design. Thus, one plate will give the outlines of 
one-half of the birds and flowers, the balance being completed by the next 
plate. With a third plate the brown tints of the bird's wings are put in, 
with the fourth their beaks and claws, with the fifth any other color of their 
plumage, with a sixth the pink shades of the plum blossoms, with a seventh 
the green leaves, and so on, the number of the stencil plates being only 
limited by the complication of the design and by the varieties of the colors 
and tints in it. The colors are laid on moist, with flat round brushes. The 
depth, tone and shading of the colors depend on the taste and skill of the 
workman and it is delightful to watch him at work and to find how instinc- 
tively and rapidly he feels that a tone is here too strong, there too weak, 
and to see him shade and temper it by dipping his brush into the dish of 
clean water always at hand, or deepen it with a few strokes of the paint 
brush. Rapidly the design in all its complications grows beneath the apt 
fingers of the printer, and soon the long strip of cotton or silk is covered 
with fans and birds and flowers ; but the base of the cloth still remains white. 
To dye it blue (for instance), the parts which have been already printed are 
covered with a thick layer of rice paste. When dry the whole sur- 
face of the cloth is brushed over with a paste of indigo and rice, or is 
dipped into the indigo vat. The cloth is then steamed to "fix" the colors 
by the mordants with which the dyes are mixed; and finally the rice paste is 
washed off, when a design of birds or plum blossoms on a white fan upon 
a blue ground, will appear as clear and distinct as if just drawn with the 
brush. The simplest designs of mere dots and lines are executed by the 
same process, as well as the most eloborate. It can be easily understood 
that such a method as that described above will allow of the greatest 
elaboration of design and its most artistic realization. The more complex 
effects are, however, sometimes obtained by painting; and from the hands 
of the stencil printer, the stuff often passes to the painter, who with a small 
brush puts in tints or markings on wings or feathers or flowers. 

Japanning'. The art of coating surfaces of metal, wood, etc., with 
japan or varnish to produce a high black luster. Japanning liquid is made 
by cooking gum shellac with linseed oil in a varnish kettle. The articles 
to be coated, such as hair pins, pants buckles, buttons, etc., are immersed in 

14 



210 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRV GOODS. JEA 

the liquid and then dried and hardened by means of a high temperature in 
stoves or hot chambers. 

Jean. [A term generally regarded as having been derived from the 
town of Jaen, Spain.] A twilled and calendered cotton cloth, usually 27 
inches in width, used principally for dress lining, and in the manufacture 
of corsets. Satin jean is a thicker variety, the surface of which is 
finished with a high gloss, employed in the manner of ladies' shoes, over- 
gaiters and similar purposes. Jeanette is a coarse quality of jean. Jeans, 
for men's garments, has the same origin as the above, though commonly 
used in the plural. Much of the "homespun" manufactured in this coun- 
try, particularly throughout the South in the early days, was jeans. At 
present it varies exceedingly as to quality, ranging from all cotton up 
through many gradations to all wool. It is always round twilled, and is 
usually woven with a cotton warp and a coarse worsted weft. The best 
grade of cotton-warp jeans is termed "doeskin jeans." 

Jersey. [So called from Jersey, one of the channel islands of Great 
Britain. The State of New Jersey was, in 1664, named after the same 
island.] A close-fitting upper garment or jacket, made of elastic woolen or 
silk material, and worn with some variation of form by both men and 
women for the past 200 years. Jersey and guernsey were names originally 
given to woven, close-fitting vests of coarse wool or worsted, worn by sail- 
ors and fishermen in place of jackets, or under their pea-jackets or water- 
proof blouses. They were afterward adopted for athletic and other sports, 
and finally got to be worn by women. These the women would knit or 
crochet by hand entire (without seams), but after the invention and intro- 
duction of Lee's knitting frame were fashioned out of stockinet, and at 
present are made of silk, cotton and worsted yarns. The jersey jacket in 
the form now seen was first manufactured for the general market by a firm 
doing business on the Isle of Wight, England, and made popular by Mrs. 
Langtry, the "Jersey Lilly." Jersey cloth is heavy woolen stockinet. Jer- 
sey flannel is a fabric much resembling stockinet, but being crocheted 
instead of knitted, and usually finished with a soft nap upon one side. Jer- 
sey underwear is manufactured on the crochet principle, which distin- 
guishes it from "flat" or knitted goods. [See Eiderdown.] 

Jobber. One who purchases goods in bulk and resells them to smaller 
dealers. A wholesale dealer, as distinguished from a manufacturer. 

Jumper. A kind of loose jacket with sleeves, made of denim or duck 
and worn by laborers employed at rough work. Jumpers are generally 
worn in connection with overalls, and buttoned the whole length in 
front. 

Jute. A fiber-producing plant of the genus Corchoras, which alone 
furnishes the jute-fiber of commerce. It is an annual, growing from 12 to 
14 feet high, the preliminary process employed of macerating from the 
outer bark being very similar to those adopted in the preparation of flax 



JUT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 211 

and hemp (which see). It is mainly cultivated in Bengal, India, whence 
comes the great mass of jute to Europe and America. Jute likes a moist 
warm climate, and could be successfully raised in our Southern States, but 
for the lack of sufficiently cheap labor for separating the fiber. The inner 
fiber is separated from the outer hull of the stalk by the process of retting, 
practised in the cases of flax and hemp. The stalks of jute are placed in 
vats of warm water till the outer hull rots and partially falls to pieces, 
which action requires from 10 days to a month. The native Hindoo thei 
wades into the water up to his middle and takes as many stalks as he cai 
grasp, and removing a small portion of the outer bark from the ends nexl 
to the roots, he strips off the dead hull from end to end, with a little man- 
agement, without breaking the fiber. Then it is washed off and cleaned by 
swinging it round his head and dashing it repeatedly against the surface of 
the water. Next it is dried, the fiber separated and is then ready for ship- 
ment to Dundee, Scotland, or the United States, to be spun and woven. 
The fiber is of fair tenacity, glossy, and capable of so fine division that 
large quantities of it is used to mix with silk, being especially used for the 
filling in the manufacture of cheap grades of dress silks. It takes a bright 
and permanent coloring. The main commercial use, however, of jute has 
been in the manufacture of coarse cloths, such as gunny bags, sacking, 
burlaps, sheeting, matting, duck, and also for the back of carpeting in 
combination with the more expensive fibers of cotton, wool, flax and cocoa- 
nut. Jute does not endure moisture or exposure to the weather, and hence 
is not well suited for the manufacture of ropes and cordage. Notwith- 
standing the fact that jute did not come under the notice of manufacturers 
until within very recent times (not being known in Europe prior to 1840), it 
has advanced in importance with such rapid strides that it now occupies 
among vegetable fibers a position in the manufacturing scale second only 
to that of cotton and flax. In India since the Crimean war the jute industry 
has advanced by leaps and bounds, official returns showing in that province 
that there is now 26 jute mills, working 8101 looms and employing 
62,000 hands. In 1891 there was exported 29,800,000 yards to foreign 
countries. India annually produces about 4,000,000 tons of jute, at the 
average selling price of $15 per ton. The major portion of the raw fiber is 
shipped to Dundee, Scotland, which city has for fifty years been the largest 
seat of jute-manufacture in the world. Dundee ships annually to the 
United States including bags and jute cloth about 175,000,000 yards. This 
vast amount is all consumed by the eastern and middle states, the western 
states drawing their supply direct from India by way of San Francisco. No 
material is manufactured at less cost per yard than jute. After cost of 
production, shipment from Calcutta, insurance charges and ocean freight 
have been added, it is placed upon the American market at an average 
price of 3 cents per pound, and even at this low rate the profits are large. 
[See Burlaps, Gunny, Silk.] 



212 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. KAM 



K 

Kamptulicon (kamp-tu'-li-con). A variety of floor cloth, invented in 
1843, but not generally introduced until about 1855. The materials and 
processes employed in its manufacture vary considerably, but it is essenti- 
ally a preparation of india-rubber masticated up with ground cork, the prep- 
aration and mixture being effected by repeated passing of the material 
between heavy grooved metal rollers. When thoroughly. mixed it is rolled 
out into sheets; sometimes over a backing of canvas by passing it between 
pairs of wide and steam-heated rollers. In addition to the substances 
above mentioned, gutta-percha, saw-dust, ground leather, boiled oil, resins, 
pitch, asphalt, and chalk have all been used in kamptulicon making. The 
rolled sheets are ornamented by printing simple patterns on their surface. 
Kamptulicon forms a warm, pleasant, soft and noiseless floor-cloth, but the 
higher qualities, in which india-rubber and ground cork are the main ingre- 
dients, are rather expensive, and the manufacture has been curtailed since 
the introduction of linoleum. 

Kangaroo leather. See Leather. 

Kapok (ka-pok'). The silky wool which invests the seeds of a species 
of silk-cotton tree botanically related to the cotton-plant, found in the East 
and West Indies. Like the wool of some allied trees, as the cottonwood, 
it is used for stuffing pillows, cushions etc. It has of recent years become 
a considerable article of export from Ceylon. 

Kerchief. [From Fr. couvrir, to cover, and chef, head.] Properly a 
cloth to cover the head, and originally signifying a simple square or oblong 
piece of linen or silk worn folded about the head, more or less loosely 
attached so as to cover or drape the head and shoulders. Some traces of 
its early form and use still survive in the costumes of different parts of 
Europe, especially among the country people. Since the 16th century, 
however, the word has been adopted for a loose cloth folded about some 
part of the person; as neckerchief, head-kerchief, breast-kerchief and night- 
kerchiefs. The word has been still further corrupted to signify a cloth for 
use in the hand— a handkerchief. [See Handkerchief, Neckerchief, 
Napkin.] 

Kersey. [So-called from having first been manufactured at the village 
of Kersey, Suffolk county, England, in 1051.] The kersey of former times 
was comparatively a coarse cloth, and an article of the same description 
is still manufactured in some parts of England and sold under the name of 
plaiding. Before the invention of knitting, kersey was commonly used for 
making stockings. At present, the term indicates either of two very differ- 
ent materials used for men's clothing: 1. A compact woolen fabric, fulled 
to a degree completely concealing the warp and weft threads, with the sur- 
face finished with a short and extremely fine nap, highly lustrous, dyed in 



KER COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 213 

solid colors; similar in weight to a melton cloth. In the manufacture of 
kersey, the operation of producing the nap is the most important in the 
whole prosess of finishing. After the nap has been raised, the cloth is 
sheared in order that the individual filaments may be made of a uniform 
length, after which it is again run through the napping machine, which last 
operation adds materially to the smoothness of the goods. These alternate 
operations of shearing and napping are resorted to several times in the 
production of fine-faced kerseys. 2. Kersey is also the name of a coarse, 
diagonally ribbed or twilled stuff woven with cotton warp and woolen weft, 
and used for men's cheap clothing. The name is a corruption of coarse- 
say. Say-cloth, in the 17th century, was a kind of coarse wool serge of a 
shaggy appearance. 

Kerseymere. A finer description of kersey, taking its name from the 
factory at which it is was originally manufactured. The factory stood on a 
mere or brook, running through the village of Kersey, England. It is prin- 
cipally a manufacture of the West of England, and, except in being woven 
twilled and of narrow width, it, in no respect, differs from superfine 
cassimere. 

Kid Gloves. In kid ar>d other snug fitting leather gloves a "size" is 
one-quarter of an inch. The measurement is taken around the full width 
of the palm, but conjoined with this must be some judgment as to other 
proportions. In heavier street gloves the sizes sometimes go by half 
inches, while in most fabric gloves the differences are not carefully adjus- 
ted, since the elastic character of the materials renders this alike difficult 
and unnecessary. These latter are designated as six, seven, eight or nine, 
indicating presumably an inch to a size, but the differences are not so great, 
being only about a half inch to a size. The durability of a kid glove de- 
pends on how they are put on the first time. In order that it may fit, a 
glove should be selected leisurely and with judgment, and put on slowly, 
taking care to fit every part. It is better not to use a stretcher. The ex- 
pansion should be made with the hands, so as to secure a perfect fit at 
every point. A glove that fits well generally wears well. If it bursts at 
the seam, the rip should be sewn with cotton thread; as silk cuts the leather. 
A device to ascertain quickly and conveniently the size of gloves to fit any 
given hand has recently been invented. The device consists of a metal 
disc six inches in diameter, highly polished, resting upon a felt mat, and 
capped with a plush cushion, to which is secured a metallic loop enclosing 
a flexible tape of the finest steel, having upon its surface raised numbers 
corresponding to those stamped inside of kid gloves (indicating the size.) 
The free end of the tape passes through a slot in the extended arm of the 
loop, and is furnished with a handle or pull. The hand to be measured is 
placed within the loop, resting upon the cushion, the tape is drawn for- 
ward, encircling the hand, quickly and accurately determining the size of 
the glove required. [See Gloves.] 



214 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. KIL 

Kilt. [ME kylten, to tuck up; Sw. kilta, the lap.] In the garb of old 
Gaul the kilt was called a fillibeg. In the original Highland dress, that 
part of the belted plaid which hung below the waist. It is said that the first 
kilt was made by an English tailor who was sent to Scotland to make the 
clothing for a company of soldiers stationed near the town of Inverness. 
While calling upon the manager of some coal mines near the town, one 
day, the tailor's interview was rudely interrupted by a Highlander running 
in to take shelter from a heavy shower. The tailor, concerned to see the 
man stand in his drenched condition, suggested that he should lay aside 
his long, loose-fitting plaid cloak, but was told that it was the custom there 
to wear but the one long garment, tied at the waist; hence he could not re- 
move it without being entirely naked. The tailor suggested a change, but 
was met with the objection that the Highlanders prided themselves on their 
manner of folding and arranging the lower part of their loose garment. 
The tailor then offered to imitate the folds and pleats and sew them per- 
manently with the needle, so that the skirt would be of more service by be- 
ing separated; and thus the kilt is said to have originated. In modern 
times it is still a sort of petticoat reaching from the waist nearly to the 
knees, usually composed of some plaid material and deeply pleated. In 
the United States the garment is imitated in various forms for children's 
wear. 

Kilting 1 Machine. An appliance used for the purpose of kilting or 
pleating, which it can perform more perfectly and with greater speed than 
can be done by hand. Accordion pleating, representing whole skirts of 
dresses, as well as trimmings, ruches, etc., is done almost entirely on this 
machine at a moderate cost compared with that of handwork of the same 
description. 

Kip. Leather made from the hide of a young or small beast. The 
term is also applied to leather made from the skins of full-grown cattle 
when they are of a small breed, or in general, undersized. 

Kneipp Linen. [From Herr Kneipp, in" entor and advocate of its use.] 
An elastic knitted linen fabric, made in various weights, for summer and 
winter underwear. It is claimed that linen possesses superior hygienic 
advantages over all other fibers, and that knitted linen in many respects is 
to be preferred to plain-woven linen. At all events, through the efforts of 
Herr Kneipp, the cause of linen underwear, whether woven or knitted, 
coarse or fine, has in the last few years been growing more and more 
popular, and its value from a hygienic point of view, in comparison with 
other textiles is securing ample confirmation. 

Knickerbocker. A cotton dress fabric, woven with a rough, knitted 
surface. The bunches or knots are formed at regular intervals in the weft 
and when woven up appear on the surface of the cloth; Knickerbocker is a 
term applied to the early Dutch settlers of New York, made famous by 
Washington Irving. The name in recent years has come to be applied to 



KNI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 215 

anything as regarded as characteristic of Dutch New York at the time of 
its early settlement. Thus the loose knee-breeches represented as worn 
by the Dutch settlers are known as knickerbockers. 

Knitting. The art of forming loose fabrics or textures with the use of 
needles or wires and a single continuous thread. Crocheting is an analagous 
art, differing from knitting in the fact that the separate loops are thrown 
off and finished successively, whereas in knitting the whole series of loops 
which go to form one length or round of the web are retained on one or 
more needles, while a new series is being formed from them on a separate 
needle. Another art also similar to knitting, is that of netting. Netting is 
performed by knotting into meshes that cannot be unraveled, while knitt- 
ing is, by a certain arrangement of loops so connected with each other as 
to be highly elastic without separation, yet capable of being unraveled and 
having the same thread applied to any other use. Knitting is really carried 
on without making knots; the destruction of one loop threatens the de_ 
struction of the whole piece, unless the meshes are reunited. It is claimed 
for this art that it must necessarily be much more ancient than can be 
verified by direct statements — that it is, in fact, one of the earliest of 
domestic arts. The simplicity of the operation, and the ease with which it 
may be learned and performed, make it probable that knitting was known 
and practiced in very ancient times. Beckman, in The History of Inven- 
tions, says: "It may be so easily acquired, even by children, as to be con- 
sidered almost an amusement. It does not interrupt discourse, distract the 
attention, or check the powers of imagination. It forms a ready resource, 
when a vacuity occurs in conversation; or when a circumstance occurs 
which ought to be heard or seen, but not treated with too much seriousness, the 
prudent knitter then hears or sees what she does not wish to seem to hear or 
see. Knitting does no injury either to the body or the mind. It occasions 
no prejudicial or injurious position; requires no straining of the eyesight; 
and can be performed with as much convenience standing or walking as 
when sitting. It may be interrupted without loss, and again resumed with- 
out trouble; and the whole apparatus for knitting, which is cheap, needs so 
little room and is so light that it can be kept and gracefully carried about 
in a work-basket; the beauty of which displays the expertness, or at any 
rate the taste of the fair artist. Knitting belongs to the few occupations of 
old persons who have not lost the use of their hands." For an account of 
the invention and history of machine-knitting, see Hoisery and Knit 
Goods. 

Knitting Cotton. A loosely twisted cotton yarn used for darning pur- 
poses, the knitting of hose, tidies and other fancy articles. It is numbered 
from 8, coarse, to 20, fine, and is put up sixteen balls in a box, each box con- 
taining two pounds. 

Knitting-needle. A straight, slender rod, usually of steel, with rounded 
ends; three are generally used at once for hand knitting. They are sold at 



216 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. KNI 

wholesale by the gross, the sizes varying from 10, coarse, to 18, fine. [See 
Needles.] 

Knitting 1 Silk. A slack-twisted silk yarn, used for the knitting of hos- 
iery and in the making of fancy articles. It is made of both "spun" silk and 
"reeled" silk. The latter is a strong and elastic thread or yarn, with a high 
degree of metallic luster. Spun silk being made from " waste," or imperfect 
cocoons that cannot be reeled, is carded and spun like cotton, hence the 
thread has a dead, lusterless appearance. Knitting silk comes wound in 
half-ounce balls, all colors, in two sizes — 300, coarse, and 500, fine. Each 
ball of No. 300 contains 150 yards of silk; No. 500 contains 250 yards; No. 
300 is equivalent to size EE in embroidery silk. 

Knotting. A kind of fancy work made with twisted and knotted 
threads, and closely imitating some old forms of lace. The term knotting 'in 
cloth manufacturing is also applied to the operation of removing knots 
from cloths with tweezers. 



Labels. Woven labels are small strips of silk with a merchants' 
name and address woven into it, sewed to the inside of collars of cloaks, 
sacques, jerseys, clothing, etc., for the purpose of advertising the business 
x>i the seller. At present all large retailers affix their own labels to all 
sleeved outer garments, it being a cheap but effective method of adver- 
tising, as the label lasts until the garment is worn out. 

Laine Elastic. A light weight woolen dress fabric, dyed a dull black, 
used generally for mourning purposes. They are woven in several de- 
signs, one description having the appearance of crape cloth; another has 
a corded check and running square, is semi-transparent and of the character 
of grenadine; a third is woven with a very much smaller check and of 
closer make, the check being scarcely perceptible unless closely inspected. 
The same fabrics in France are called Armure Victoria. 

Lace. [From It. laccio, noose, snare, string. Lace originally meant a 
braid or tie — a signification still surviving in shoe lace, corset lace, etc. 
When such braids began to take fancy shapes they were known as passements 
— of which our present passementerie is a modern instance.] The art of 
making lace was evolved, not invented. Doubtless the points and scallops 
of leaf and blossom first suggested to primeval man an ornamental edging 
for garments. Fringes and borders upon the skirts of clothing appear in 
the earliest rude pictures and carvings of the ancient Egyptians. A little 
later came the simple cut-work that Time's whirlgig has turned into lace. 
The earliest authentic account of it is about the sixth century, when high- 
born Italian nuns wrought it for the sanctuary. Even before that, English 
nuns were famed for the very open "English work," wonderfully lace-y in 



LAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 217 

effect. Monks, as well as nuns, gave their whole mind to it. St. Dunston 
himself, in intervals of pulling the devils' nose with red-hot pincers, made 
designs for the convent workers. The work itself, done upon fine hand- 
wove linen, with the best flax thread, was sent all over Europe and brought 
in no small revenue. It was the forerunner of cut-work, from which it is 
but the shortest of steps to lace. Cut-work had the pattern sewed over 
thickly and the ground cut away. After a little, skilled needlewomen 
found that they could make something even more delicately beautiful by 
interweaving fine linen laces with finer threads upon a parchment-pattern. 
At first the interweaving was done wholly with the needle, hence the term 
point-lace. Europe has always been the center of the lace industry, the in- 
vention of real lace being claimed by both Italy and Belgium. Without 
doubt, Italy produced the first point, and Flanders the first pillow lace; 
but it is impossible to tell which was the earlier production, as the me- 
diaeval records throw but little light upon the subject. Italian reticella, 
which is the oldest needle-made lace, was evolved from cut-work, and 
afterward gradually merged into point-lace. This needle-point lace was 
made wholly by hand, with the needle. A pattern was drawn, usually 
upon parchment; to this parchment was stitched a stout piece of linen; the 
heavy threads forming the outlines were then laid along the main lines of 
the pattern on the parchment and sewed lightly down. Then the whole 
design is carried out, both solid filling and openwork, with delicate stitch- 
ing, chiefly in the "button-hole" stitch. In Italy these old hand-made point 
laces were made up of bits and bits fashioned by many different women in 
their own little cottages, — here a leaf, there a flower, slowly wrought 
through the long, weary days, only to be united afterward in the precious 
web by other workers who never saw its beginning. There is a pretty lesson 
in the thought that to the exquisite perfection of each of these little pieces 
is due the rare beauty Of the whole. A single flower upon which taste 
and fancy were lavished, and which deft labor only brought to perfection 
represents the lives of many diligent women workers. These Italian 
workers were noted for their laces when Titian was the great portrait 
painter, and among the legacies left by them are found varieties which 
may not be fashioned under the grey skies of Northern lands, or in the, 
smoky cottages of Northern peasants. In executing these unrivalled pat- 
terns, the flexible fingers of Venetian senorettas drew the threads within 
the limits of the pattern from the warp and woof of snow-white linen and 
wrought them beneath the cloudless skies in the open air, from designs 
copied from old cathedral windows, or the armorial bearings of knightly 
families. When the art of point-lace making travelled North the bobbin 
and cushion were invented to save the eyes, and fingers too, which could not 
keep the gossamer fabric clean in cottages where smoke and dust con- 
spired to make it yellow. To day the secret of their making is lost,' and 
old point de Venise or point de Genoa is worth very many times its weight 
in gold. Though lace-making flourishes still in the homes of the peas- 



218 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

antry, the product is a poor, cheap stuff, not worthy to be named in the 
same century with the antique work. 

The patterns or designs in lace have varied greatly during the four 
centuries in which the making of the fabric has been generally known and 
esteemed as an art. But at all times each radical change has been influ- 
enced in a measure by the prevailing taste or fashion of the period in 
which it was made — so much so that an expert in lace can fix, with absolute 
certainty, within a few years the date of its manufacture, and can state also 
the country which produced them. The designs, therefore, have been 
classified into five separate styles, no two resembling each other in any 
remarkable degree, although the style of one period following upon an- 
other began to vary gradually until the new design was fixed in a uniform 
manner. The five different styles are: 1st. The Mediaeval which prevailed 
up to 1550, at which time lace-work was confined to churches and convents. 
This style is quite remarkable and is made up of curious figures, often 
grouped together — hideous monsters, sacred emblems, birds, beasts, scroll 
work, trees, wreaths, and symbols of various kinds. 2d. The Geometrical 
style, which was greatly in vogue for a period of about seventy years, or 
from 1550 to 1620. This style was as unlike the Mediaeval as possible, 
being composed of triangles, diamonds, squares, fragments of circles, loz- 
enges, and all manner of sharp angles and geometrical designs. This style 
came in favor when lace was first emancipated from the church, or devoted 
to general purposes. The object of the lace workers seemed to be to rid it 
of all sacred symbols, even at the expense of taste in design; and even the 
patterns which did not represent sacred subjects seemed so connected with 
them that a general change was adopted. There was, therefore, a stiffness 
and exactness about it — a certain invariable regularity which, in some of 
the designs, was almost painful. 3d. The Renaissance style. Early in the 
17th century a new life seemed to be given to every branch of art then 
known, and new birth to others. Painting, sculpture, inlaying with metals 
and precious stones, artistic dress, furniture and houshold decoration be- 
came the passion of the hour. As if by magic, clever artists and workmen 
endowed with wonderful skill sprang up in various countries in Europe, 
representing every department of art. This period has been called the 
Renaissance, and, in many respects, the works then performed have not 
since been surpassed. Lace at this time became a most artistic produc- 
tion; new, graceful patterns were substituted for the old, angular ones, and 
the style, workmanship and design of the lace of this period has never been 
equalled by later efforts. The Renaissance style in lace is as far as possi- 
ble removed from the Geometrical. It is rather flowery, being composed 
of sprays, flowing garlands, and festoons of leaves and flowers, mingled 
with scroll-work. These were distributed over the lace rather closely at 
the beginning, but latterly at greater distances, and put together in exqui- 
site combinations. This style dates from 1620, and holds its sway by the 
force of its beauty alone until 1720— a full century. 4th. The Rqcocq style. 



LAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 219 

Time and the people must have changes, even though they may be from 
better to worse, and for worse it certainly was when the styles of the Re- 
naissance degenerated into the Rococo. The designs become more angu- 
lar and disconnected; stiff, upright bouquets, with scarcely a drooping 
flower, are set closely together, uncompromising in their dignity and angu- 
larity, leaving but little room for a ground of any sort. The Rococo style 
extends from 1720 to 1770, and, at first, some of the careless grace of 
arrangement which characterizes the Renaissance clings to it; but this in 
time is altogether lost. 5th. The Dotted style. From 1770 this diversion 
comes into vogue, a decided improvement upon the Rococo, yet lacking 
the fresh and spirited grace of the Renaissance, and being rather insignifi- 
cant in design than otherwise. The boquets still appear, but they have 
shrunk into small proportions; are placed far apart, the ground being pow- 
dered with open or close dots, small flowers, rosettes, bees, etc. This style, 
the last distinct one to be invented, continued in vogue until 1810. Soon 
after machine lace began to supplant these made by hand, and from this, 
and because the demand was less than formerly, lace-workers could not 
earn a living by their skill, and so the manufacture seemed almost to die 
out. Yet not quite this, for though " the lace trade slumbers, it does not 
die;" and though the art of making many of the rarest kinds is lost, yet 
there will always he found lovers of the art in the world to copy and im- 
prove upon the old designs in hand-made lace, and a certain market for it, 
too, among the wealthy and those who have a passion for procuring what is 
difficult to obtain. Rarity alone makes many things precious to avaricious 
eyes, but artistic rarities are dear to us all. The present patterns of laces 
partake, in some degree, of all the foregoing five general styles, yet, as a 
rule, each country has peculiar patterns of its own as well as special designs 
for special purposes. Many buyers and wearers of lace do not know why 
the old lace is so much more valuable and so much more beautiful than 
the present machine products. The principal reason is, that the valuable 
old lace is all woven in lost patterns so complex that they cannot now be 
duplicated by any machinery. It is frequently as fine as a spider's film and 
cannot be reproduced by the most skilled hand-makers of the present time. 
In Italy it can be approached but not equalled. In the olden time, whole 
villages supported themselves by lace making, and patterns were handed 
down in families from one generation to another. They were valuable 
heirlooms, for the most celebrated weavers always had as many orders as 
they could execute in a life-time, and they were bound by an oath taken on 
the four Gospels to work for only certain dealer^. This oath was held by 
the poorest of them to be binding, and there were instances where they 
suffered actual want rather than break their word. The daintiest patterns 
have long since been lost, and to-day specimens of these laces are worth 
their weight in gold. The lace treasures of royal and wealthy European 
families are practically beyond price. Queen Victoria's laces are valued at 
over half a million dollars. Those of ex-Empress Eugenia aggregate 



220 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

almost a million. The Spanish regal laces are not less precious, and the 
sacred relics of the Italian cathedrals are of incalculable value. The most 
celebrated laces of the world take rank as follows: 

1. Brussels. 3. Valenciennes. 5. Alencon. 

2. Mechlin. 4. Lisle. 6. Alencon point. 

It may readily be supposed that an art, depending so much on individ- 
ual skill and taste, would vary exceedingly. Nevertheless, all the 
varieties during the four centuries in which hand-made lace flourished, re- 
solve themselves into two distinct classes, viz: Point lace or needle-point 
lace, sometimes called Guipure, and Pillow or Bobbin-lace. The Point 
lace is made wholly with the needle by hand. A pattern is first drawn upon 
parchment in ink; to this parchment is stitched apiece of linen, and the 
heavy threads forming the outline of the pattern are then laid along the cor- 
responding lines of the parchment, and sewed lightly down. The whole de- 
sign is then carried out with delicate stitching. Needle point lace is really 
embroidery, but it is done upon loose threads which the worker has laid 
upon a drawn pattern, and which have no connection with each other 
and no stability until the needlework holds them together. Of point lace 
11 different varieties are known to the commercial world. Alencon is the 
most important of these, it being the fine lace of the 18th century, and 
being made entirely in small pieces, and afterward sewed together with 
invisible seams. It derives its name from the town of Alencon, France; 
Rose, Venetian and Spanis/i point consist of thick, bold patterns formed by 
rolls of cotton worked over to raise them, the bars which connect them 
being ornamented with either picot or small stars; Old point is composed 
of patterns of very small, close stitches on a groundwork of open ones; 
Argenta7tla.ce is usually indistinguishable from Alencon, but often bolder 
and larger in pattern; Portugese and point d' Alencon resemble Rose point, 
except that the pattern is somewhat flatter; Dieppela.ce, made at Dieppe, 
France, resembles Valenciennes. It has regular ground for squares, upon 
which was usually applied a very simple pattern in close-stitch; Mire- 
court lace, in the 17th century, was a variety of Guipure; at the present 
day the name describes an applique lace, made of sprigs of bobbin-lace 
sewed upon a bobbinet ground; Brussels lace, (which term in trade is often 
given to very fine laces, no matter where made or of what pattern) has a 
very fine mesh or ground-net, and a pattern of less relief than Alencon. 
Brussels is also a Pillow lace. The Venetian point in relief is one of the 
richest and most complicated of all points. All the outlines in relief are 
formed by means of cotton placed as thick as may be required to raise 
them. Sometimes the pattern is in double and triple relief; an infinity 
of beautiful stitches are introduced into the flowers, which are surrounded 
by a pearl of geometric regularity. 

The second large class is Pillow or Bobbin-lace,which is made by a pro- 
cess intermediate between weaving and plaiting, from a number of threads 



LAC 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



221 



which are kept in their places by the weight of the bobbins attached to 
them, and are woven and plaited together by hand. The lace is made on a 
small pillow or cushion, hence the name. The most important Pillow 
laces are the following: 



Applique, 

Mechlin, 

Matlasse, 

Cluny, 

Torchon, 

Lisle or Arras Thread, 

Russian, 



Chantilly, 

Grammont, 

Blonde, 

Guipure, 

Llama, 

Cashmere, 

Yak, 



Valenciennes, 
Duchesse, 
Point de Venice, 
Point de Flandre, 
Genoa Point, 
Point de Medici, 
Old Brussels Plait, 



Honiton, 

Regency Point, 

Irish Point, 

Baby Lace, 

Trolly, 

Breton, 

Point d'Esprit. 



Many of these laces are always popular, being at all times worn to 
some extent; others are for a few seasons almost unknown, when suddenly 
they spring to light again perhaps under a new name, but modified in some 
slight particular. In Pillow-lace making, the number of bobbins is gener- 
ally equal to 50 to the square inch. If the lace be 1 inch wide, it will have 
625 meshes to the square inch, or 22,500 to the yard. The work, therefore 
goes on very slowly, though generally performed with the greatest dex- 
terity. Applique lace is made by sewing flowers or sprigs, which may be 
needle-made or bobbin-made, upon a bobbin ground; Mechlin lace has the 
pattern outlined by a flat cord or band, very narrow but distinct. It is usual- 
ly made in one piece — pattern and ground together. The ground is some- 
times a mesh or net, and when of this character of pattern is more varied, 
sometimes being formed of "brides," or connecting links. Mechlin has been 
called the prettiest of laces. It is fine and transparent, and is best adapted 
to summer use, being most effective when worn over colors. Its distinguish- 
ing feature is the thread which outlines the flower, giving to the fabric 
somewhat the character of embroidery. Matlasse lace is formed of a medi- 
um weight Brussels net; the design though usually in rose, or raised pat- 
tern, varies considerable, in many cases being of ferns and scroll work; 
Cluny is a kind of net-lace, in which the stitch is darned upon a square-net 
back ground. The patterns are antique and quaint, as of old-fashioned 
flowers and birds; glazed thread is sometimes introduced in the pattern as 
an outline, or center line; Torchon is a coarse, scalloped lace made of 
stout and rather soft and loosely-twisted thread. In parts of Europe 
largely made by hand, but that sold in this country is made by machinery. 
Arras is a white lace made at Arras, France, very strong and inexpensive, 
because of the simplicity of the pattern; Chantilly is a kind of blonde-lace, 
of which the popular sort has a ground of heavy mesh or net, and the 
flowers of the pattern in openwork instead of being solid or matted. It is 
made of non-lustrous silk throughout, so that black lace of this kind is 
often mistaken for thread-lace ; Grammont lace represents two different 
varieties: one, a white pillow lace, originally made at Grammont, Belgium, 
and the other a black silk lace, similar to Blonde-lace; Blonde was origin- 



222 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

ally a heavy lace made of unbleached silk, from the yellowish color of 
which the name arose, but now of white, black and colored silk, manufac- 
tured at Chantilly, France; Guipure, in the well known silk lace has an 
open and gimplike mesh, and is made of heavy sewing silk; the figure is 
usually in set patterns, such as stars and triangles, being bordered by a 
feather-edge, or a shading of finer mesh; Yak lace is a coarse, heavy and ex- 
tremely open variety, originally made of the long black hair of the yak, an an- 
nimal resembling our domestic ox, found in the Himalayan mountains; Val- 
enciennes is called the "queen of laces." The name is derived from the city 
of Valenciennes, France. It is distinguished by having the same size and 
kind of thread throughout, for both ground and pattern; the thread being 
at the same time extremely fine and strong. True Valenciennes is made 
altogether on the pillow, generally by young girls in dark cellars, (so the 
thread will remain moist snd supple), no worker retaining her sight after 
the age of 30. The best of this variety is as beautiful as it is rare, and so 
rare as only to be bought by the fortunate few. The manufacture dates 
from the 16th century, being Flemish by birth and French by adoption. In 
France the real old Valenciennes is so durable and so highly prized that a 
mother bequeathes it to her daughter as she does her jewels. In the 17th 
century the lace-makers of Valenciennes could only produce an inch and a 
half a day, and when working on the most complex patterns only 24 
inches a year; it required 10 months, working 15 hours a day, to produce a 
pair of men's ruffles. The best specimens are so fine and compact that the 
flower resembles cambric in in its texture; Duckesse lace was originally 
made in Belgium, being characterized by a great deal of raised work, flying 
patterns and the like, which are also used in the somewhat similar Honiton 
laces; Point de Venise, de Flanders, de Medici, Genoa, and other point laces 
are all to be found imitated in bobbin work; Honiton lace derives its name 
from the town of Honiton, England, and is remarkable for the beauty of its 
figures and sprays. Honiton applique is made by working sprays, flowers 
and other parts of a pattern, bit by bit, on a lace pillow, and securing them 
by needle to a net ground made separately. In modern manufacture, hand- 
made sprays are often sewed upon a machine-made ground; Honiton 
Guipure is a lace of large flower patterns, with a very open ground, and is 
gene; ally sold under the name of Honiton lace. The utter disappearance 
of genuine Honiton lace was imminent about the year 1880, with the result 
that many an old and valued heirloom of this fairy-like fabric was brought 
from the seclusion of old trunks and boxes, where it had lain for years al- 
most forgotten, but bearing in its yellow hue and delicate pattern the im- 
print of antiquity. The reason of its threatened disappearance was the 
fact that the long and minute labor of the human fingers could not compete 
with the cheap, rapid operations of the marvelous machinery in the Not- 
tingham factories; the number of women who were versed in the old secret 
of Honiton lace-making began to diminish year by year, and Honiton town 
itself was almost as little associated practically with lace-making as Wor- 



LAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 223 

stead is with the woolen manufacture, or Axminster with that of carpets. 
But the combined efforts of the English government and private enterprise 
have resulted in an active resuscitation of the industry; Antwerp lace 
nearly resembles early Alencon. A so-called pot is introduced into the 
design — that is, a semblance of a vase or basket, constantly repeated; 
Aurillac lace is made at Aurillac, in France. It is close-woven, solid lace 
having much pattern in the mesh; Auvergne is made at Auvergne, France. 
It is commonly a pure bobbin-lace, but of many different makes and pat- 
terns; Bayeux lace is made at Bayeux, Normandy. It is a close imitation 
of Rose-point. The Bayeux pattern is also made in black silk lace, much 
in demand because made in unusually large pieces, as for shawls, fichus, 
etc.; Brussels lace, is also made in bobbin-work, as well as by needle, and 
in trade the term is applied to any extremely fine lace, no matter where 
made or of what pattern. The thread used for this lace is of flax, and of 
extraordinary fineness. The finest quality is spun in dark underground 
rooms, to avoid the dry air which causes the minute thread to break. To 
secure light a single beam is admitted and directed upon the work. It 
is the fineness of the thread, as well as delicacy of workmanship which 
has given to the best Brussels lace such celebrity and rendered 
it is so costly. This thread, of which it is made, often sells from 
$1000 to $2500 a pound, being of such fineness and delicacy that 
machinery is unable to be utilized in the spinning. The finest spun 
machine-thread does not exceed 800 leas (240,000 yards to the pound), 
while the hand-spun thread of Westphalia and Belgium for costly laces 
approximate 1000 and even 1200 leas (360,000 yards to the pound). In 
the old Brussels lace the design was worked in with the ground. At the 
present time it is especially an applique lace pattern, being first made 
on the pillow by bobbins and afterwards sewed on a ground by needle. It 
is estimated that at the present time there are at least a million lace- 
workers in the various European countries. France, England, Belgium, 
Switzerland, Spain and Italy all team with these artisans, and send their 
handiwork all over the known world. In Germany and Bohemia there are 
grants in aid of technical schools for teaching lace-making, and in France 
artistic and intelligent men guide and direct the industry; and also in the 
British dominions, where its revival was first taken in hand a few years ago. 
Belgium is the lace makers' chosen home. One fortieth of the whole popu- 
lation is engaged in it. The government supports 900 lace schools, to 
which children are sent as young as five years. By the time they are ten they 
are self-supporting, 

Naturally, spinning is very unhealthy, and experts receive high wages. 
The best yarn from a single pound of Brabant flax fetches over $2500. 
For filling flowers and leaves, fine soft cotton is used. The grounds, too, 
are often made of cotton. The elaborate patterns are made in sections 
and joined together by invisible seaming by the most skillfull workers of 
all. As the lace is never washed before it is sold, the most exquisite neat- 



224 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

ness is requisite in everything connected with it. Still, as months are con- 
sumed in making very handsome pieces, the work turns dingy in spite of 
the lace-worker's best efforts. To remedy this it is sometimes dusted with 
white lead in powder, which turns dark at contact with gas or sulphur in a 
way to exasperate the wearer. Many attempts have been made to make 
Brussels lace away from Brussels — always, though, without success. 
Though the mechanical processes are strictly followed elsewhere, some- 
thing in the air or water or soil of other countries prevents it from pos- 
sessing the delicate softness peculiar to the Brussels fabric. 

In Italy also, especially in Venice, which city is the earliest home of 
lace and from whence it was introduced into other countries, there are now 
many lace schools in full and active operation. The operatives are women, 
of all ages and sizes, from the soft-eyed girl of twelve to the gray-haired 
crone of sixty. Each worker sits on a low stool and holds a plump, square 
cushion on her lap. On this cushion is pinned a strip of paper marked 
with the pattern to be followed, and into this pattern the nimble-fingered 
worker sticks glass-headed pins, and twists her threads about them. From 
twenty to fifty shuttles hang from all sides of the cushion, which are being 
constantly thrown back and across with great rapidity in the formation of 
the pattern. The pins are withdrawn and replaced as the threads advance 
along the design. The process is so simple that it seems child's play, but 
the lace produced represents thousands of dollars. The simple patterns grow 
rapidly between the dexterous fingers of the women, but the fine and rare 
varieties evolve with a slow and proud dignity. The cost of some of the 
hand made thread used in the finer laces is enormous. It is spun from an 
especial kind of flax, and has been known to bring the extraordinary price 
of $2500 a pound. This lace is sold at fixed prices, being valued upon a 
stationary basis, varying from forty cents to $6.00 a yard. The women are 
paid from fourteen to twenty cents a day, their work being valued at a fixed 
scale of profit. If the fourteen cent woman consumes ten days in making 
a a yard of lace, this yard of fabric is sold for $2.00, which, of course in- 
cludes expenses of tools, thread, house-rent, etc. These schools turn out a 
large product, the greater part of which finds its way to the United States. 

Machine Lace. — Every kind of Pillow lace as well as Point lace, is now 
imitated by the loom, but the imitations of Point are not so perfect as those 
of the Pillow family. France, England and Switzerland manufacture them 
in large quantities, in silk, cotton and wool. Indeed machine nets and 
laces have not only superseded the cheaper productions of the Pillow, but 
have also added to the value of the rarer kinds of both Pillow and Point. 
Machine lace, more especially the curtain lace known as Nottingham, is 
now also being produced to some extent in this country, as well as silk 
lace. , 

Bobbinet was first made by machinery in 1768. The machine was an 
adaptation of the stocking loom to netting and was cumbrous and not very 
effective. In 1809, John Heathcote, the son of an English farmer invented 



LAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 225 

the first machine to make true bobbinet with perfect six-sided holes. [See 
Bobbinet.] It brought a great hue and cry about his ears from the 
hand-lace workers, who fancied they saw themselves thus reduced to beg- 
gary. In their anger they broke into the factory where the machines were 
first set up and made scrap iron and kindling wood of them. The only 
result was to drive the new manufacture to other and safer quarters. For 
long the secret of the machines' construction was most jealously guarded 
by English manufacturers. Not satisfied with letters patent they kept up a 
coast patrol to make sure that nobody took model or drawings to France. 
At last, though, they were outwitted. A discharged workman who had the 
plan of it in his mind, managed to get safe over the sea and built a machine 
in France. Thus far, all that could be produced by machinery was bobbi- 
net, which served the hand-lace workers for grounds upon which to build 
their lace. -The machine enormously cheapened the cost of producing 
bobbinet. For example, a piece of plain net made by hand, that in 1805 
sold for $25 the yard, could after the invention of the machine be sold for 
just 25 cents. In 1837 the application of the Jacquard loom to bobbinet 
made machine-lace a reality. Since then it has gone from strength to 
strength, constantly improving in quality and decreasing in price. The art 
of making machine lace is a science of no small importance, and one which 
has been investigated by everyone who has made any important advances 
in the manufacture of lace, whether in the construction of machinery or its 
application and use in the production of almost endless varieties of ground- 
work and design. It has been the study of lace patentees from Heathcote, 
in 1809, down to the present time. It consists in a careful examination and 
study of the different classes of Pillow lace; ascertaining the number of 
threads used and their several courses or direction in the formation of 
every kind of mesh; the number and order of twists, plaits, weavings and 
crosses which are formed with each pair of threads; the fine-works, open- 
works, thick threads, points and purls, which go to make up the texture of 
each class — Mechlin, Brussels, Alencon, Valencienes, Lisle or Honiton. 
This information is necessary to be gained in order to be fully aware what 
is to be done by the machine, so that imitations, more or less perfect, may 
be produced. The lace-machine is so complicated it would be hopeless to 
convey any really intelligible idea of it without a voluminous description of 
all its parts. One or two points of chief importance may, however, remove 
any difficulty in understanding its general principles. In the loom, there 
are a series of warp threads placed straight up and down instead of hori- 
zontally, and about wide enough apart to admit of a silver quarter passing 
edgeways between them. Behind these threads is a corresponding row of 
flat bobbins, resting on a bolt-bar. These are so placed that with the first 
movement of the machine each bobbin, which carries its thread with it, 
passes between two of the warp threads, and is lodged in another and simi- 
lar bolt-bar in front of the warp. But this front bolt-bar, besides a back- 
ward and forward motion, has another movement — called shogging — from 
15 



226 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

right to left. When it receives a bobbin by its forward motion, it draws 
back, bringing the bobbin and thread through two of the upright warp 
threads. It then shogs or moves to one side, and goes forward again, 
taking *the thread through the next two warp-threads and lodging the bob- 
bin on the bolt-bar again, one distance beyond its last space. This it 
recovers by the next movement and it again passes through the first space, 
to be again received by the front bolt-bar. By these movements the bobbin- 
thread is twisted quite around one upright thread of the warp. Another 
movement then shifts the bobbin so that it will pass through the next pair 
of upright threads and so carry on its work, the warp threads moving at 
the same time. There are twice as many bobbins as there are threads of 
warp, each bolt-bar having a set which it exchanges with the other, and all 
being regulated with such nicety, that a width of lace is made in far less 
time than is required to write this short description. Almost any pattern 
of hand-made lace may be imitated by machine, each pattern depending 
upon the variations that can be given to movements of the flat, disc-like 
bobbins. 

Many varieties of lace are manufactured by machinery that are not 
made by hand, while many are also made which partake of the more 
prominent features of different styles of hand-made goods. 

Border lace is any sort made in long, narrow pieces having a footing 
on one side, the other edge usually being vandyked, purled, etc.; Vandyke 
lace is usually made of cream colored or black silk, in a combination of 
light and heavy scroll patterns, outlined by a glossy silken thread; Bridal 
lace is made with the ground wholly composed of brides or bars, without a 
reseau or net; Broad dace is a woolen variety made in bands about 4 inches 
wide, and used as an ornamental border to the upholstery of a carriage; 
Cadiz lace is a kind of needle point lace, considered as a variety of Brus- 
sels lace; Cartisane lace is a sort of expensive passamenterie, made of thin 
strips of parchment, covered with silk and gold thread. Chain lace is a 
variety of braid or passament so worked as to suggest links of a chain, 
made of colored silk and also of gold and silver thread. Cork lace signi- 
fies Irish lace in general, especially of the older sorts, made principally in 
the city of Cork, before the recent extension of the lace industry in Ireland. 
Cordover lace is merely a kind of filling used in the pattern of modern 
point lace. Cretan lace is a name given to an old lace made commonly of 
colored material, whether silk or linen. Crewel lace is a kind of edging 
made of worsted thread intended as a border or binding for garments. 
Crochet lace is the sort made by hand with a crochet hook, or of which the 
pattern is made in this way but applied to a bobbin or machine-made net. 
It resembles needle point, although not to be compared to the finer kinds 
of the latter. English point lace is a variety of bobbin lace of Flemish ori- 
gin, made in the 18th century, and so-called "English" by English dealers 
in order to evade the law with regards to the tariff. At the present day it 
represents really the finest Brussels lace where needle-point sprigs are ap- 



LAC COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 227 

plied to Brussels bobbinet. False Valenciennes resembles Valenciennes but 
without the true reseau; also a general name for Valenciennes in Brussels. 
Flat point lace has reference to the sorts which have no raised work or em- 
broidery in relief upon the surface. Flemisnpointla.ce is made in Flanders 
and is a needle point Brussels. Hollie point lace is a needle lace worked 
in the middle ages. The word is a corruption of Holy point, and was used 
to denote church laces, whether formed of drawn or cut work, or with 
darned netting when the pattern of a lace was scriptural in subject or con- 
tained sacred emblems. Imitation lace is a term applied to machine-lace 
of any kind. In fineness the imitation often rivals the real. Its chief de- 
fect, however, is its mechanical regularity of pattern, which makes the de- 
signs lifeless and uninteresting. Jesuit lace is a modern needle-point 
variety made in Ireland; so-called from tradition concerning the introduc- 
tion of this manufacture since the famine of 1846. Knotted lace is a name 
given to a fringe made of knotted threads. Macrame lace is its modern 
representative. Lille lace gets its name from Lille, France, and is remark- 
able for its clear and light ground, which is known as fond dare. It is the 
most beautiful of single thread grounds. Limerick lace, the most success- 
ful of Irish lace, is really not lace at all, but a kind of tambour work upon 
net and muslin. [See Tambour.] Dalecarlian lace is made by the peas- 
ants of Dalecarlia, the patterns of which are ancient and traditional. Dam- 
ascene lace is an imitation of Honiton, sometimes being united sprigs of 
real Honiton with filling of needlework. Darned lace is a name given to 
any sort of lace which has a netted ground, upon which the pattern is ap- 
plied in needlework. Dutch lace is a thick and not very open lace, resemb- 
ling a coarse Valenciennes, made in the Netherlands, generally by peas- 
ants. Mirecourt lace in the 17th century was a variety of Guipure, more 
delicate and thin in texture than other Guipure. At present it is an ap- 
plique lace, made of sprigs of bobbin lace sewed upon various sorts of 
grounds. Oriental has a ground formed of fine Brussels net, upon which 
the pattern, usually of roses, fern leaves and vines is worked. The edge 
is scalloped and in most cases more heavily embroidered than in ordinary 
lace; Escurial lace has a mesh which is sometimes formed of large squares 
or diamonds, and again close and filmy fine. The designs are of roses, 
tulips, leaves, etc., outlined by a silken cord of glossy finish, a peculiarity 
which in all varieties distinguish Escurial from other hand-run laces- 
Spanish silk lace was originally a needle-point lace brought from the con- 
vents of Spain. The patterns are usually confined to simple flowers and 
leaves, made in close overshot or matted work. Spanish Guipure has a 
Guipure mesh, with Matlasse designs. Spanish overshot is formed over 
the pattern of a Matlasse lace, with the addition of loose threads worked 
over the top or the design. It is the cheapest of Spanish laces. Thread 
lace signifies the sorts made of linen thread, in contradistinction to silk 
and cotton laces. Point de Gene, or Point de Genoa, are machine imita- 
tions of the point de Venice and point de Genoa needle-point laces of Italy. 



228 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAC 

Gold lace is a sort of braid or gimp, used chiefly as a decoration for uni- 
forms, liveries and some church costumes. Gold lace, or more properly- 
gilt lace is a thin covering of gold applied to a surface of silver, which 
again has a foundation of silk. The silk threads for making this lace are 
wound round with gold wire so thickly as to conceal the silk; and the mak- 
ing of this gold wire is still more singular than the making of gold thread. 
In the first place, the refiner prepares a solid rod of silver, about an inch in 
thickness; he heats this rod, applies upon the surface a coating of gold leaf, 
burnishes this down and continues until the gold is about one-hundredth 
part of the thickness of the silver. Then the rod is subjected to a train of 
processes which brings it down to the condition of fine wire. It is then 
passed through holes in a steel plate, lessened step by step in diameter. 
The gold never deserts the silver, but adheres closely to it and shares all 
its mutations. It was one-hundredth part the thickness of the silver at the 
beginning, and it maintains the same ratio to the end. It has been calcu- 
lated that gold on the very finest silver wire for gold lace is not more than 
one-third of one-millionth part of an inch in thickness; that is, not above 
one-tenth the thickness of ordinary gold leaf, such as dentists use. 

Lace Curtains. The use of curtains originated during the brilliant 
civilizations which were developed in a very remote antiquity by India, 
China and Egypt. The manufacture and arrangement of curtains and 
draperies then received as much attention as any of the nobler arts. 
Throughout all the centuries the use of curtains has ever formed an im- 
portant feature in household decoration. Of the many materials utilized 
for this purpose, lace forms by far the greater part. Since the invention of 
machines for the manufacture of bobbinet, in 1809, Nottingham, England, 
has been the greatest center for the production of curtain lace in the world. 
At the present time, however, the city is not enjoying so flourisriirig a state, 
owing to the decrease of the export trade of this industry, and especially 
to the fact that within the last 10 years the United States have turned their 
attention more fully to this branch of manufacture. Loom-made curtains, 
pillow shams, borders and edgings are now made in large quantities in 
this country, principally at Wilkesbarre and Philadelphia, Penn., and in 
Rhode Island and Galveston, Texas. The most expensive curtains made 
by American mills wholesale at $4.50. A brief account of the method of 
manufacture may be of general interest. 

The warp is placed in a perpendicular position, the threads being wide 
enough apart to pass a quarter between them. These threads may be 
from 700 to 1,200 in a yard of width, stretched from a roller. The filling is 
wound upon small bobbins, which consist of two discs riveted together, 
permitting a space between them for the thread. These bobbins are placed 
in a comb bar behind the warp. At the first movement of the loom, each 
bobbin that carries the thread with it passes through two of the parallel 
warp threads to another comb bar in front of the warp. The front bar has 
an additional motion from right to left, so that after it has received the 



LAC COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 229 

bobbin by its forward motion and has drawn back, bringing bobbin and 
thread through two upright warp threads, it moves to one side; it again 
moves forward and passes the bobbin and thread through the next two 
warp threads, the bobbin being lodged upon the rear bar, one space be- 
yond its last position; this it recovers by its next movement, and again 
passes through the first space, and is again received by the front bar. As 
a result of these movements, the weft thread is entwisted about one up- 
right warp thread. The bobbin is then shifted, so that it will pass through 
the next pair of upright threads, and so continue its work; the warp 
threads, in the meanwhile, are being continually unwound from their 
lower and rolled upon their upper beam. Each comb bar has a set of bob- 
bins, which it exchanges with the other, there being in the aggregate twice 
as many bobbins as there are warp threads. The movements are so nicely 
adjusted that a width of lace is made in an incredibly brief space of time. 
The narrow strips are made upon the same loom; these are united by a 
temporary thread, which is afterward pulled out. A jacquard is attached 
to some looms for working in the thick thread of gimp for artificial work. 
Subsequently, the work of bleaching, calendering and washing is per- 
formed. Then follows the drying process, in which the fabric is stretched 
on a cushion, a pin being fixed in each hole to prevent shrinking. 

Lace curtains are not valued for the amount of cotton which enters 
their construction, but for the beauty and taste of the design with which 
they are woven. The cheapest lace curtains have a weight of not over 
one-half pound; the best pair of Nottingham curtains has a weight not 
exceeding three pounds. The cotton yarn for the cheapest pair costs but 
20 cents, and for the best pair of lace curtains costs but $1.20. • They are 
retailed from 90 cents up to $15 per pair; the difference between 90 cents 
and 20 cents, and $1.20 and $15 being covered by wages, designing, tariff 
and the profits of manufacturer and dealer. If made in Nottingham the 
cotton passes through many hands before the curtain reaches the final 
purchaser. Perhaps the second best cotton in the world is Texas cotton. 
The Texas farmer sells his cotton to a buyer at the county-seat; cotton 
brokers in Galveston buy the cotton from the county-seat dealer and ship 
it to Liverpool with a profit; the Liverpool buyers sell it with a profit to a 
Manchester spinner, who makes cotton yarn of it and sells it with a large 
profit to the Nottingham lace curtain maker; this maker produces the cur- 
tains and sells his product with about 15 per cent net profit to the Notting- 
ham commission houses. These commission houses sell the lace curtains 
with about 30 per cent net profit to American jobbers, who import them, 
paying Uncle Sam 60 per cent import duty and 5 per cent custom 
house expenses, and high freight — selling them with profit to the retail 
dealer, who in turn sells them to the consumer if the pattern be good, at 
from 25 to 50 per cent profit. ' 

Lady's Cloth. A term by which is distinguished a class of fine, wide 
flannels slightly napped, used for making ladies' light wraps and dresses. 



230 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LAM 

It is one of the best as well as one of the most expensive descriptions of 
flannel, being woven of fine wool and rarely adulterated vnth an admix- 
ture of cotton. [See Broadcloth.] 

Lambrequin (lam ' -bre-quin). A term which has passed through sev- 
eral stages of evolution to reach the particular place it at present fills 
among dry goods. In mediaeval times, lambrequin signified a piece of cloth 
worn by a knight over his helmet, for protection from heat and dust. Next 
it is found in architecture and painting, the lower edge of the lambrequins 
in such decorations being represented as jagged or scalloped, but consist- 
ing of the graceful outlines suggestive of the lambrequin floating from a 
knight's helmet. At present the word indicates a piece of textile fabric, 
or leather, hanging by one of its edges, and having the opposite edge slit- 
ted, scalloped, or otherwise cut in an ornamental manner. In upholstery, 
a sort of curtain covering the upper part of an opening, as a door or win- 
dow, and often forming a fancy cornice to the curtain proper. 

Lamb's Wool. The wool of lambs, used in manufacture; hence, del- 
icate wool, as of certain breeds of sheep or of lambs, or of mixed varieties; 
used for the manufacture of hosiery. 

Lappet-weaving-. A system of weaving used for producing figures on 
the surface of cloth by means of needles placed in a sliding frame, called 
the lappet-frame, which has a sliding bar carrying needles, each with a sep- 
arate thread for producing certain colors in the pattern. The bar is raised 
and lowered as required by the action of a wheel grooved according to the 
pattern to be produced. Sometimes two or more such bars are employed 
simultaneously when several colors are made to appear in weft-patterns. 

Lariat (lar'-i-at). A rope used to tie horses and other animals 
together. Also a thong or noose made of rope, rawhide or buckskin, used 
for catching wild animals; called in California and Mexico lasso and riata. 

Lasting. [A contraction of everlasting.] A strong and durable wor- 
sted fabric, formerly called durance. It is usually black, and is used for 
covering buttons, for the uppers of women's shoes and gaiters. It is woven 
either with a double twill or with a satin twill (then called Denmark satin). 
Draw-bays, prunella and serge de berri are varieties of lasting. 

Laventine (lav ' -an-tine). A thin silk, used especially for sleeve- 
linings. 

Lawn. A term applied first in 1423 to a fine thin linen fabric at that 
time much used for kerchiefs and niching, and also for the sleeves and 
other parts of the dress of bishops of the Angelican Church. By some 
authorities the word is said to have been derived from the town of Laon, 
France, near Cambray, which latter place gave the name of cambric. It 
is well known that fabrics frequently take their names from the locality 
where they first acquire excellence and retain them long after local manu- 
facture has been transferred elsewhere. Other authorities, however, claim 



LAVJ" COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 231 

that fine, slight linens received the name of lawn on account of having 
been spread upon the smooth grassy lawns to bleach, instead of on the 
coarse and more ordinary grass, which is probably the correct origin of the 
term, as exposure in the open air to the action of sunlight and moisture was 
at that period the only known method of bleaching linen. Lawn at the 
present time is a thin, open cambric, slightly sized with pure starch, and 
mainly used for women's summer dresses. The term is applied in trade 
to various sheer muslins, found in both linen and cotton, printed and plain. 
Linoti is the French word for lawn. Cobweb lawn, as the name indicates is 
a fine, gauzy variety. Cypress cloth was the name formerly applied to 
black lawn for mourning purposes, and at one time was identical with 
black cotton crape; so called on account of cypress branches having 
anciently been used at funerals as emblems of grief. Victoria lawn is 
white cotton lawn, made in many qualities; named in honor of Victoria, 
queen of the English. Lawn of every description was in the early days of 
its manufacture called bishop's lawn, on account of its being used for cer- 
tain portions of the dress of bishops. Thread lawn is pure linen lawn, 
and is sometimes termed Irish lawn. The term originated in the 18th 
century to designate an all-linen from a mixed lawn, just as thread lace is 
used to describe an all linen lace as distinguished from one made of cotton. 
Leather. The tanned, tawed or otherwise dressed skin of an animal. 
The first leather was tanned with the fat liquor out of the human being. 
Hides were used to cover the nakedness of primeval man, and they were 
tanned by the sweat, the salt and the grease from his carcass. Since the 
day that Adam and Eve exchanged fig-leaves for furs, the human animal 
has had a habit of clothing himself in the integument stripped from 
his dumb brothers. When or where the first artificial process of converting 
hides into leather originated, no wise man pretends to know. Doubtless 
the process was evolved, not invented, as the use of leather antedates the 
earliest historical records, and no savage tribe has yet been found ignorant 
of some way to dress skins. The American Indians especially are masters 
of the art. Rude as are their processes, the product is far ahead of the white 
man, the soft and pliant buckskin of the moccasin being a positive luxury 
to the touch. Neat cuttle furnish hides for more than half of the world's 
leather. Next to them come goats, and after them sheep. Horse hides 
and deerskins are inconsiderable in amount. Pigskin used for saddles and 
heavy gloves is in limited demand. Dogskin, elephant skin, snake skin, 
ratskin and aligator are mere items of account, not at all equal to the kan- 
garoo skin, which has quite superseded some grades of calf. Our home 
supply of hides is far I elow the demand. Old Mexico furnishes us with 
many steer and goat hides, and ranks next to South America, whence 
comes two-thirds of our supply. The heaviest, consequently the best, hides 
come from Brazil. They weigh over twenty pounds each (dry), and fetch 
about sixteen cents per pound. These all go for sole leather and machine 
belts. Cowskins and those from young animals furnish the "kip" leather 



232 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LEA 

of commerce, while the animals a year old or under furnish the many 
varieties of calfskin. For cheap work both kip and calf are often split — 
that is divided by machinery into two sheets, each by courtesy called 
leather. Oak bark, hemlock bark, and the powdered leaves of sumach 
are the things that supply tanning. Oak-tanned leather is distinguished 
by its being almost colorless, or a very slight shade of tan, and sometimes 
nearly white. It fetches a cent or two more per pound than other kinds, 
and is invariably used when a leather of peculiar strength and toughness 
is required. Hemlock tanning makes a leather hard and brittle, and 
imparts to it a red, cherry color, which latter is against it as far as appear- 
ances is concerned. The bulk of leather is of this tanning, as it is cheaper. 
Sumach makes leather almost as light as oak, and makes it soft and plia- 
ble. A great many years ago, the time taken to tan sole leather occupied 
from a year to a year and a half, but nearly all tanners in this country now 
turn out leather by any of the above methods in four to five months. The 
impression that quick tannage forbids a good product, has no real founda- 
tion. It has been discovered by experience that upon feeding the tannin 
as quickly as possible to the pores and interstices of the hide, depends the 
thoroughness by which the even weight and quality of the leather are 
gained. The agitating of the hides (that is, the frequent stirring and 
turning) has been found to cut down in a great measure the time for- 
merly consumed in this process. The object of all tanners is to secure as 
much gain in weight as possible; and a good tanner can generally get 170 
pounds of leather from 100 pounds of dry hide, without injury to the 
quality. 

The hides (dry) are received at the tanneries in bales of 35 to 60, and 
are first placed in vats of pure cold water, where they remain from 5 to 10 
days. When they are thus softened, they are ready for the treatment 
which is necesary to remove the hair, the object being to soften and to 
swell the surface of the hides, where the roots of the hair are imbedded, so 
that the hair can be easily removed. The hides after the soaking are cut 
down the back into "sides." They are then put into a hide-mill to further 
soften them, and help loosen the hair. These hide-mills are simple con- 
trivances, with two large wooden pendulums or arms working back and 
forth in a box made of stone and iron, which pound the hides, on which a 
stream of water is kept flowing. The hides are then "sweated" by hanging 
in an air-tight vault of from 50 to 60 degrees temperature, and while there 
it is necessary to watch them very carefully, as the change which has been 
commenced in the soak- vats proceeds rapidly here. The air in these sweat- 
vaults is so heavily charged with moisture and ammonia from the hides, 
that in their present incipient stage of decay there is a danger of it being 
carried too far, causing the hair to slip and destroying the grain. From 
the sweat vaults the hides are again taken to the mill to receive more 
kneading and pounding, and to remove the hair, which is gradually worked 
off by the continual turning and beating they receive, and is washed away 



LEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 233 

by a stream of water descending to the mill. The hides now go to the 
beams-men, who lay them upon a half-circular table, and with large blunt 
knives remove the remaining hairs. They are also worked and scraped on 
the flesh side, to take off any extra flesh or fatty matter which may have 
been left on the hide, and are thoroughly rinsed and scoured until they 
appear white and clean. The next process consists of coloring. In a vat 
filled with liquor a large wheel, called the "coloring wheel," is arranged to 
revolve. This wheel is made of wooden slats, and into it 50 or 60 of the 
soft white hides are thrown, and the wheel set in motion and allowed to run 
20 minutes, when the sides are taken out. They are now of a light cherry 
color, and firmer in appearance. The reason for coloring at this stage is to 
prevent the sides from turning black during the next process of "pump- 
ing." The pumping operation is done in a number of vats called "acid 
handlers," which contain a solution of sulphuric acid and water, into which 
the sides are suspended horizontally on sticks, where they remain two days; 
the liquor, meanwhile, being constantly stirred by a blast of air pumped 
into the vats at the bottom. This acid treatment opens the pores and fibers, 
and makes it r t eady for the reception of the bark extract or tan liquor. In 
using acid great care must be observed in the first stages, or the leather 
will be very dark, have a poor grain, and will not "clean up" into light col- 
ored soles, an object which is much desired in sole leather. From the acid 
handlers the sides go to the vats containing weak tanning liquors, where 
they remain soaking for two days, the object being to give them an even 
color and to further develop the grain of the leather. Next they are put in 
the tanning vats, and begin the long process of tanning. For the first few 
days the sides are changed every two or three days from one vat to another, 
containing liquor of increasing strength from two degrees, as indicated by 
a barometer, up to 42 degrees for the last vat. The sides are next placed 
in what are called "lay away vats," and while being so laid away, a shovel- 
ful of ground bark is thrown on top of each side, the whole being covered 
with bark liquor. This process is continued at intervals for about four months, 
by which time the hides have absorbed all the tanning liquid possible, 
and are thoroughly and evenly tanned. After the leather has been taken 
away from the last lay away vat, it is placed in a large washing wheel, 
about 25 sides at a time, and is washed for 15 to 20 minutes, when it is 
packed in piles and allowed to drain for 2 or 3 days. It is then taken up 
piece by piece and placed on a table, where it is oiled on the grain with 
curriers' oil (whose source is those Newfoundland cod livers not fresh 
enough for medicine), and then packed in piles to allow the oil to penetrate 
into the leather, when it is hung up on horizontal sticks in the drying loft to 
dry. Two weeks generally elapse in this semi-darkened room, supplied 
with dry air constantly in circulation. The leather is now "tempered" by 
sprinkling it with hot water, and then packed away again in air-tight rooms 
to allow the moisture to draw evenly through the pores for 24 hours. From 
the air-tight room it goes to the "fitting tables" for rolling, which consists 



234 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LEA 

of being treated with hot water and oil, by which it is urought "a a iiexibie 
and mellow condition. In America and England all this leather is rolled 
by a pendulum roller made of brass, about 4 inches in diameter and 6 
inches long, which is attached to a long wooden beam working from above 
like an arm, back and forth on a solid iron bed-piece with a concave face. 
Desired pressure upon the leather is regulated by a treadle, which the fin- 
isher works with his foot. Leather is generally rolled twice, a day or two 
elapsing between the times, when it is Considered "finished;" the rolling 
process having imparted a fine polished appearance to the grain and a firm 
feel to the stock. After being weighed and marked the leather is ready 
for shipment, and is loaded on the cars in regular layers of sides. Kip 
skins go through much the same process, only less so. Being thinner, they 
require less time and care. More chemicals, too, are used in the tanning, 
and when finished much of it is blacked ready for the boot and shoe mak- 
ers. The finest grade of calfskin leather is imported from France, owing 
to the fact that the bark of the evergreen oak, indigenous to that country, 
produces leather of a peculiar softness and fineness of grain not equaled 
by the oak bark of America. * t 

Many other substances besides tannic acid are employed to preserve 
hides and skins, and prepare them for certain uses. But these do not make 
leather which will resist moisture or retain its flexibility after wetting. 
The most extensively used of these is alum, so that the term alum-tanned 
leather or, as frequently termed, tawed leather, has become a common 
designation both in Europe and the United States. The process of alum 
tanning has in the past ten years completely revolutionized the morocco 
leather business in the United States. In 1878 hardly ten per cent, of the 
morocco leather consumed in the United States was made here. Now the 
conditions are nearly reversed, for more than three-quarters of the morocco 
used here is of American make. "Morocco" is the general trade term for 
goat, sheep and light calf skins, no matter how finished, whether pebbled, 
bright or dull. The finer grades of morocco are manufactured from goat 
skins, but other grades are obtained from sheep and split calf skins. In 
the process of tawing (alum-tanning) the substance principally employed 
is alum, or some of the simple aluminous salts. This system is principally 
applied to thin and light skins of sheep, lambs, kids and goats. The pro- 
ducts obtained by tawing are of a pure white color. After the skins are 
unhaired, the tawing is accomplished in a large drum or cylinder, into 
which is introduced for each 100 average skins a mixture consisting of 
twenty pounds of alum, nine pounds of salt, forty pounds of flour, 250 eggs, 
seven-eights pint of olive oil, and twelve to sixteen gallons of water. In this 
mixture, at a temperature of not mere than 100 degrees F., the skins are 
worked for about forty minutes, by which action the tawing is completed. 
After the withdrawal from the drum the skins are allowed to drain, dried 
rapidly by artificial heat, damped, staked o;:t by drawing them over a 
blunt steel knife, and then wetted and shaved down on the beam to the 



LEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 235 

required thickness. Next they receive, if necessary, a second treatment 
with the tawing mixture. The dyeing or coloring follows, which is nearly 
always black, the color consisting of a compound of bichromate of potash, 
stale urine, logwood extract, and copperas. It is applied either by 
brushes on a table, or by dyeing the leather in small vats. The dyed 
leather is washed with pure water, dried, ironed, polished between glass 
rollers and finally oiled on the flesh side with a mixture of oil and wax. 
Morocco leather (in its wide meaning) was originally of the Levant 
and Turkey. Formally all this sort of leather was tanned with sumac, and 
to-day sumac tanned goatskins are tanned as they were a hundred years 
ago. Ten years ago the largest American morrocco factory only turned 
out a few hundred dozen skins a day. Now establishments in Philadelphia 
and elsewhere turn out 3,500 dozen every twenty-four hoursi The great 
impetus given to morocco manufacture in this country lately is due to 
science and invention — the discovery of improved methods of tanning 
and the developement of modern machinery. The sumac process so long 
used, has been superseded by alum tannage. Owing to this new method, 
New York City has become the greatest goatskin port in the world. In 
round numbers more than 30,000,000 untanned goat skins were imported by 
this country in 1891. To secure this immense number of skins buyers for 
New York houses have visited and made permanent homes in the utter- 
most parts of the earth inhabited by human beings. These historic and 
valuable animals are always found in greatest numbers where civilization 
is at its lowest ebb. The New York importers find their supplies among 
the savage hill tribes of the northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas, 
in the valleys of Persia, on the steppes of Asia, and among the semi- 
barbarous people of the Andes; they get them from the sandy wastes of 
Arabia and the Sahara, from the slave caravans from the head waters of the 
Blue Nile, and from the Kaffirs of South Africa. They scour the remotest 
pampas of South America and the Indian pastoras of Central America and 
Mexico, and all the islands of the sea contribute to the total. The follow- 
ing table shows where most of the goatskins brought to this country during 

1890 and 1891 come from: 

1890. 1891. 

European, Asiatic and African, 9,280,000 7,668,000 

Arabian 2,407,700 1,845,000 

Calcutta 3,537,800 4,469,000 

Mexican 1,239,500 1,438,000 

Texas anc? Mexican Frontier 643,000 687,000 

Oajaca 129,514 100,300 

Curacas 697,400 618,000 

Rio Hache, Maracaibo, Porto Cabello, Laguayra, etc . 174,000 170,800 

Payta (Peru) 298,200 257,500 

Buenos Ayres 714,000 685,000 

Brazil 2,853,900 3,169,000 

West Indies 178,370 148,300 

Bogota 51,450 49,800 

Angostura, etc 11,790 14,700 

22,216,634 21,320,400 

Other sources 7,000,000 9,000,000 

29,216,634 30,320,400 



236 , COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODb. LEA 

One of the chief depots of supplies tapped by these world-sweeping 
New York searchers for goatskins is the great fair of Nijni Novgorod in 
Russia. Immense numbers of skins are brought to this point, coming, 
many of them, by ancient trade routes over the Ural Mountains, from far 
in the interior of Asia. Here they are assorted and baled for shipment to 
America. Other great markets for goatskins are Calcutta, Aden and Ber- 
beyrah, in North Africa, and Ceara, in Brazil, Buyers of goatskins need 
peculiar qualifications. Not only must they be shrewd business men, know- 
ing thoroughly the people they are dealing with, and be able to drive a 
trade and talk the language of barter, but they must have iron constitutions 
likewise. It is said among the importers of the "Swamp " that a buyer who 
can stand the climate of Arabia can go anywhere. But this precept is 
never put into practice. A man sent out from America to Arabia to buy 
goatskins usually makes that inhospitable country his home, and remains 
there after being acclimated. So, those buyers whose constitutions can 
stand the ordeal of yellow fever in Brazil, or the insidious climate of India, 
are kept in those countries as long as they are willing to stay. Then it 
takes time and patience to traffic in goatskins in some quarters of the 
earth. The Arabs are the shrewdest traders in the world. They know to 
a farthing the commercial value of the article they want to sell, and f hey 
will stick half a day for a penny. They bring skins over the mountains to 
Aden from the interior of Arabia. At Aden a broker is employed to bring 
about a conference between the American buyer and the Arab seller. He 
gets the two together in a room, coffee is drunk, they are ready for busi- 
ness, and then the fun begins. Arabs are suspicious in trading, and no one 
but the buyer and seller are permitted to know what the terms are. They 
clasp right hands and a scarf is thrown over the hands, that none may see. 
Not a word is uttered. The offer is made in sign language. The buyer 
grasps the seller's fore-finger at a joint. The first joint indicates an offer 
of so much; the second joint so much more, and the knuckle joint so 
much, all the time their hands being hidden by the scarf. Invariably the 
first offer is rejected. The men part with words of scorn, walk around the 
room and turn their backs on each other. Then the broker intervenes, 
more coffee is drunk, and presently they get together again, clasp hands 
under the scarf and the negotiation is resumed. This goes on about half a 
day before an agreement is reached. Then the buyer, if he was inexperi- 
enced enough to buy by weight, is lucky if he don't find a half-pound or so 
of valuable Arabian sand sewed up in the shank of each goatskin. 

" Dongola and " Tamfiico" are trade names for tanned goat skin. 
"Jrench Kid''' refers to the soft and flexible skins of young goats tanned 
by the kid-leather process. [See Gloves.] " Pebbled goat and "straight 
grain'' goat refe'"^ to the style of finishing the leather. The indentations 
or pebbles are produced by the leather being passed between rollers 
having the pattern cut en their surface. Roan leather is sheepskin tanned 
in sumac, ".olored and dressed throughingly in the same manner a 1 } 



LEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 237 

morocco, used largely in bookbinding. Skivers are the split grain sides 
of sheepskin. The flesh sides are shamoyed and finished as inferior grades 
of wash leather. 

Shamoy or Oil Leather. — The process of preparing leather by im- 
pregnating hides with oil is probably the oldest system of leather manu- 
facture. Well shamoyed leather requires the exercise of much skill and 
numerous manipulative processes. Hides and skins of all sorts may be 
prepared by shamoying; but sheep, goat, deer, antelope and small calf 
skins are those usually treated, an enormous number of flesh splits of sheep 
being shamoyed for common purposes. The extensive employment of 
deer skins in shamoying gives the product the name of buck leather, and 
from the use of the " chamois " skin of the Alps, is derived the name of 
the process of chamois or shamoy. At present none of these latter skins 
are obtainable. From the fact that shammy skin, or shamoy leather, may 
be easily washed like cloth it is also sometimes called wash leather. Skins 
for shamoying are in the preliminary stages treated almost as for or- 
dinary tanning. After unhairing, the surface of the grain (the cuticle) is 
shaved off in all except the small thin skins. They are then treated with 
a lime solution and repeatedly washed to bring the pelt to a somewhat 
open and porous condition, drenched with bran to remove all lime, and 
rinsed in an acid liquor. The skins are now taken to the fulling machine, 
where, after being rubbed over individually with fish oil, they are 
hammered for about two hours to force the oil into the substance of the 
skin. They are then stretched, hung up for some time, again oiled and 
fulled. These operations may be repeated from six to twelve times, 
according to the thickness of the skins treated. After thorough impreg- 
nation the skins are dried, then heaped up in a heated room, where a pro- 
cess of oxidation is quickly set up. So soon as the skins assume a yellow 
color and give off a peculiar odor (not at all like the fish oil with which they 
have been treated), the process is complete and the fermentation is stopped. 
It is now found that about one-half the oil is oxidized within the skin and 
combined with the tissue to form leather; while the remainder is present 
only in the condition of mechanical impregnation. This uncombined oil 
is washed out with a warm potash solution, and the fat so recovered, forms 
a valuable material for the dressing of common leather by curriers. The 
skins are next smoothed out and the shamoy leather is ready for market. 
It is used extensively in the manufacture of gloves and underclothing; 
many druggists sell shammy skins under the impression they are off the 
backs of the genuine chamois animal of the Alps, whereas in reality they 
are the flesh-split of a sheepskin. 

Alligator Leather. — Since 1860 leather has been tanned from the skins 
of the alligator, procured principally in Florida, and the tanning a consid- 
erable industry at Jacksonville. The parts of the skin used for leather are 
the belly and flanks. These portions are steeped in lime and tanned by 
any of the processes already mentioned. The leather has the great advan^ 



238 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LEA 

tage of being absolutely waterproof. Good hides are worth $10 each. This 
sort of leather is becoming rarer of recent years, on account of the increas- 
ing rarity of the animals. In some respects the alligator is peculiar and 
dilatory. The female exhausts fifty years in flirtation before commencing 
the serious business of her life as the mother of a family. 

Kangaroo Leather. — So popular has kangaroo leather become since 
1880 that the Australian government, which began by offering bounties for 
kangaroo scalps, have now decreed a close season, six months long each 
year, to prevent the total extermination of the animal. Since the demand 
has become so great kangaroo farms have been started in Western Austra- 
lia to keep up the supply of skins. The skins come to this country 
Calcutta at the rate of about 6,000 a week, and furnish a leather pleas° 
the foot, durable in quality, but liable to stretch out of all shape if wt t .n 
not carefully dried. These skins are both tanned and tawed, the principal 
tanning agent being the mimosa bark, which abounds in Australia. The 
leather is very similar in appearance and texture to fine goat. 

Patent leather was first made at Newark, New Jersey, in 1820, by Seth 
Bayden. It is made of calfskin and also of kip and large hides, split and 
skived down to the proper thickness. The leather, after tanning, is fin- 
ished especially for the making of patent leather, great care being observed 
to keep it as free as possible from grease or oil. The skins are first tacked 
on frames and coated with a composition of linseed oil and umber, in the 
proportion of eighteen gallons of the former to five ounces of the latter, 
boiled till nearly solid, and then mixed with spirits of turpentine to the 
proper consistency. From three to four coats of this are necessary to form 
a surface to receive the varnish. The coats are laid on with a sort of knife 
or scraper. To render the leather soft and pliant, each coat must be very 
light and thoroughly dried in between each application. A thin coat is 
afterwards applied of the same composition, of the proper consistency to 
put on with a brush, and with sufficient lamp-black boiled into it to produce 
a perfect black. When thoroughly dry it is ready to varnish. The princi- 
pal varnish is made from linseed oil and Prussian blue, boiled to the thick- 
ness of printers' ink. This is then reduced with spirits of turpentine to 
suitable thickness to work with a brush and is applied in two or three sepa- 
rate coats, which are scraped and pumiced until the leather is perfectly 
filled and " smooth. The finishing coat is laid on with especial care in a 
room with the door kept closed and with the floor wet to prevent dust from 
settling on the leather until it is dry. 

Russia Leather was originally, as the name implies, a specialty of 
Russia, where it was made from the hides of young cattle, and dressed 
either brownish-red or black in color, being used for upper leather, book- 
bindings, purses and similar objects. Russia leather is now made through- 
out Europe and the United States. Horsehide, calf, goat and even " splits " 
are now finished as Russia leather; but most of these are decidedly inferior 
in quality; and, as they are merely treated with birch bark dye to give them 



0)1 



LEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 239 

the odor by which Russia leather is recognized, they scarce deserve the 
name under which they pass. Genuine Russia leather is tanned like other 
light leathers, except that for the tanning agent, willow bark or spruce fir 
bark is used. After tanning, the skins are treated on the flesh side with an 
empyreumatic oil obtained by the dry distillation of birch tree bark and 
buds, to which the peculiar smell of the leather is due. The brownish-red 
color, commonly seen in Russia leather is given by dyeing with a prepara- 
tion of Brazil wood rubbed over the grain-side with a sponge. The black 
color is produced by repeated stainings with acetate of iron. The 
leather if genuine is very waterproof and strong, and owing to its impreg- 
nation with empyreumatic oil, it wards off the attacks of insects. [See 
oves, Boots and Shoes, Pebble.] 
D . jLeno (le'-no). [A corrupt form of Fr. linon, lawn.] A very thin linen 
cloth made in imitation of lawn, or muslin, and sometimes called linen 
muslin. It is used for translucent window blinds, and for other purposes 
for which a gauzy fabric is required. 

Levantine. A stout twilled silk, so called from having originally 
been exported from the Levant. 

Line. In button manufacture, one-fortieth of an inch; the size of 
buttons being denoted by the number of lines across the diameter. Thus 
a 22-line button equals twenty-two-fortieths of an inch from side to side; 
an 18-line, eighteen-fortieths of an inch, etc. The term is also used in in- 
dicating the width of braids, etc., having reference to the number of ribs 
or plaits in the width. 

Linen. Under this term are comprehended all yarns spun and fabrics 
woven from flax fiber. The cultivation and preparation of the fiber and its 
treatment till it reaches the condition ready for the loom, are dealt with 
under the head of Flax. 

From the earleist periods of human history till the close of the 18th 
century, the manufacture of linen was one of the most extensive and widely 
disseminated domestic industries. The origin of its manufacture is traced 
back to times lost in the twilight of fable, far beyond the dark ages, and 
centuries before the Christian era. It was old in the time of Herodotus 
(50 B. C.) Long before the first author wrote his first book, the ancient 
Egyptians produced linen fabric far exceeding in fineness any cloths 
which at present is woven by the most improved mechanical inventions. 
This is clearly proven by the decorations and carvings of their temples, 
which display with startling accuracy the implements used in the cultiva- 
tion of flax, the treatment at maturity, as well as the subsequent stages of 
spinning and weaving. Their mummy wrappings, too, show that with 
their crude machinery and simple appliances this ancient people wove the 
finest linen fabrics the world ever saw.* According to the best authorities 

* One piece of linen cloth found wrapped about a mummy had 540 warp threads to 
the inch; while the finest ever spun and woven in England being 330 threads per inch. 



240 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LIN 

the knowledge of flax and its manipulations came first from Egypt into 
Greece and Italy, and thence travelled westward to France and Flanders, 
next probably into Germany and England, before it got ground in the 
more northern and north-eastern parts of Europe, where it has since pros- 
pered very much. It is certain that the Germans used in very early times 
tc dress and spin flax, and weave linen cloths; but whether it was they 
were jealous of their art, or whether, being a proud and warlike people, 
they were ashamed to have it known that they condescended to labor at 
the loom, cannot be determined; however, all this work was secretly done 
in vaults and caverns, the manufacturers being buried, as it were, under 
ground. In time the industry became largely developed in Russia, Aus- 
tria, Germany, Holland, Belgium, the north of Ireland and throughout 
Scotland; and in these countries linen was the fabric most largely in use 
for clpthing until the introduction of cotton. The invention of the spin- 
ning-frame by Arkwright, the spinning-jenny by Hargreaves, and the spin- 
ning-mule by Crompton in the latter part of the 18th century, benefitting 
as they did almost exclusively the spinning of cotton; and the immediate 
growth and development of cotton manufacture, largely due to these in- 
ventions, gave the linen trade, as it then existed, a fatal blow. Household 
spinning and hand-loom weaving immediately began to shrink. The trade 
which had supported whole villages and provinces entirely dissappeared, 
and the linen manufacture in crippled conditions, took refuge in special 
localities, especially in Ireland, where it has resisted with varying fortunes 
the continued assaults of cotton. Innumerable linen fabrics of fine de- 
signs and costly quality, once in great esteem and extensive use, are now 
unknown; or in cases remembered it is solely by their cotton substitutes. 

In the United States the linen manufacture has never taken root and 
grown as compared with other textile industries. It is true prior to the Civil 
War the spinning and weaving of linen as a farm-industry was practiced 
to a considerable extent, but even that has now become extinct. The 
decline and downfall of the industry is attributed to the change from the 
household manufacture to that of the central factory; to the increasing use 
of cotton in the war period; to the tariff revisions of 1872, and latterly, to 
the fact that encouragement has not been given to farmers for the raising 
of a fine flax fiber. Another reason for the failure of the linen industry to 
develop in the United States, is the fact that no machinery has yet been 
found for superseding hand labor in the cultivation of the plant, and it is 
only the cheap labor of the old countries which enables them to excel in 
this field. Flax is the most difficult and stubborn of all textile fibers to 
work, and as to improving the processes of manufacture after the flax is 
pulled, the number of inventions that have been tried and found wanting 
in Ireland, Belgium, Germany and other old flax countries, is only equalled 
by the patent car-couplers invented by ingenious Americans. Scarcely a 
month passes in Ireland, and England in which some invention is not 
brought out destined to "revolutionize " the linen trade. But it is found 



LIN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 241 

that no trade resists revolution like linen manufacturing. Owing to the 
stiffness and length of the flax fibers, a great part of the machinery used 
for cotton is not available for linen, nor can linen be worked with such 
rapidity as in the case of cotton. The two largest factories in the United 
States for the manufacture of crash are the Stevens Linen Works, at 
Methuen, Mass., and the Minneapolis Linen Mills, at Minneapolis, Minn. 
The former import their linen yarn from Europe, while the latter use only 
pure American flax fiber. These mills manufacture only low-grade linens. 
It is said there is no linen cloth manufactured in the United States of 
either imported or home-grown flax, exceeding in price 15 cents per yard. 
Bleaching of linen is generally understood to mean the process of 
whitening or decolorizing the cloth. Until about the year 1800, the successful 
issue of this process depended upon the natural bleaching agencies present 
in the atmosphere and the sun's rays. The usual plan was to spread out 
the cloth on a grassy field called a "bleaching green," and to continue 
sprinkling it with water several times a day. After being thus exposed for 
from five to six months to the action of the air, light and moisture, the cloth 
was rendered white. The process was tedious and occupied much valuable 
land for the best part of the year, and for this reason large quantities of 
brown linens were sent from Ireland, England and France to Holland for 
the purpose of bleaching. A particular kind of heavy linen which was 
regularly sent to Holland to be bleached received on that account the name 
of ho Hands ; and another variety which from its fineness was spread on the 
smoother grass fields or lawns, received the 1'tle of lawn. On account of 
the time consumed by the open-air process of bleaching, many other plans 
have from time to time been proposed and patented, but the method now 
adopted to hasten the bleaching of linen is the use of chlorine [See 
Bleaching]. By the use of this chemical substance the time required for 
whitening linen has been reduced from all summer to about five weeks. 
An attractive and novel sight in the vicinity of Belfast, Ireland, is the numer- 
ous bleaching greens, with their acres of linen webs undergoing the final 
part of the bleaching process, where nature plays her part after the labor- 
atory's labors. Sun and air are absolutely necessary to perfect flax bleach- 
ing; chemicals cannot accomplish all, nor will all climates do the work 
as well as the humid climate of Ireland. It is a well-known fact that the 
linens bleached along the banks of the river Dan in North of Ireland are 
whiter and softer than the products of other countries, and all extremely 
fine and sheer linens are sent to these bleacheries to be whitened. Whether 
this superiority is due to some chemical combination contained in the 
waters of this river, or in the heavy dews which fall on its banks, or in the 
comparative evenness of climate that prevails throughout the seasons, with 
their frequent exchanges of light and. shade and alternate rain and sun- 
shine, which make it a chosen spot for the purpose of bleaching, is not cer- 
tainly known. Vast quantities of brown linens are annually shipped into 

Ireland from France, England, Russia, Germany and Belgium to be 
16 



242 ■ COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LIN 

bleached and returned. During the old days when bleaching was accom- 
plished entirely "upon the grass " the period of purification, as has already 
been stated, required all summer; but there was no tendered linens in those 
days, and the cloth seemed to have everlasting wear. Every bleachery now 
has its professional overseer. He must know the laws of chemical action 
as far as they govern the ingredients he employs in his hastening methods 
— and all these to the point of precision, else his boilings may develop seri- 
ous damage and consequent loss to his employers whether bleaching for 
themselves or others; for all who follow bleaching as a business are re- 
sponsible to those who consign brown cloth to their hands. Mistakes of 
blundering bleachers are frequently the occasions of "job-lot " offerings of 
tendered linens for which Belfast has a celebrity at times. Bleaching 
proper requires about three weeks, then about two weeks for finishing. 

Ammonia is a good test as to the completeness and success of bleached 
linen. Well bleached linen is not in the least discolored by it, but linen 
which is white but not thoroughly freed from pectic matters becomes 
yellowish in ammonia. Such linen will become yellow if kept in stock for 
any length of time. 

To ascertain if there is a mixture of jute in a linen fabric, put a little 
solution of chloride of lime into a saucer, and lay in it for four or five 
minutes the thread or sample of cloth to be examined; then squeeze out 
the solution and put the fabric into a solution of ordinary hydrochlorate 
acid, and, after a few moments, take out and wash in plenty of water. 
Then apply a drop of ammonia to the fabric, and in case there is a mix- 
ture of jute, a slightly violet-red color is immediately imparted. Flax and 
hemp become slightly brown. The red coloration, however, does not re- 
main long, and the proportion of jute mixture can only be roughly 
shown. 

To distinguish linen from cotton, dip the sample or samples in a 
boiling solution of caustic potassa, and let it remain a few minutes. The 
the linen will assume a dark yellow, while the cotton will be a light yellow, 
or nearly white. 

To distinguish linen from wool, dip the sample or samples in a boiling 
solution of caustic soda (8 deg. B). Let it remain for two hours at a steady 
boil and all the wool will be dissolved, leaving the linen unchanged. Silk 
is dissolved by cold nitric acid which does not affect wool. 

To distinguish thin linen from thin cotton cloth, moisten the tip end of 
a finger and apply it to the cloth. If it be linen the moisture will be ab- 
sorbed quickly; if cotton, it will come through more slowly. 

The fineness of linen is determined by the relative length of yarn in a 
given weight, and also by the number of warp-threads contained in a cer- 
tain space of the reed in weaving, to which the weft threads in a similar 
space must bear a fixed and regular proportion. In judging linen of what- 
ever fineness and price, particular attention should be paid to the evenness 
of the threads, and also to the fineness and closeness of the texture. The 



LIN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 243 

color should be perfectly white, and the finish glossy; but this gloss should 
be principally if not wholly the effect of the calender employed in finish- 
ing the cloth. Many inferior fabrics are rendered marketable by a large 
proportion of starch, from which they not only receive a fine gloss, but also 
a factitious hardness, or body, as it is termed — qualities which disappear 
after the first washing; and the cloth having lost in this ordeal all its 
vellum-like consistency, becomes, to use a familiar expression, "as poor as a 
rag." Hardness and smoothness, therefore, can never be safely depended 
upon as a criterion; the eye must be rather closely applied to discern 
whether these qualities actually proceed from the strength and fineness of 
the fabric. The threads must not only be even, but must have a certain 
wire-like roundness and be free from fuzz. Linen fabrics have several advan- 
tages over cotton, resulting principally from the structure and longer 
lengths of the flax fiber. The cloth is much smoother and more lustrous 
than cotton cloth, and has a less "wooly" surface; so that it does not soil 
as easily as the more spongy cotton. Bleached linen, starched and dressed 
possesses that unequalled purity, gloss and smoothness which make it 
alone the material for shirt fronts, collars, etc., and the gossamer delicacy 
yet strength of the thread it may be spun into, fits it for the fine lace-mak- 
ing to which it is devoted. Flax is a heavier material than cotton, but 
weight for weight it is much stronger, single threads having proportionate 
strength in the ratio of 3 to 1%, and cloth 3 to 2. Medical authorities as- 
sert that linen fabrics form a superior material for underwear, for the rea- 
son that linen does not clog the pores, but admits of free exhalation. 
In case of contagious skin eruptions the contagious elements are held in 
the material of woolen garments, and are therefore likely to be spread 
and re-inoculated in the skin. Also that woolen underclothing is quite 
likely to become loaded with effete matters from the perspiration and cast- 
off epidermis, each alike irritating to the skin and injurious to the lungs. 
[See Flannel, Crofting, Calendering, Flax, Fibers, Holland, 
Crash, Lawn, Bleaching.] 

Linen Diaper. Linen cloth woven in the same way as damask, but 
having a small set pattern of diagonal squares, bird's-eyes, or the like; 
used for towels and children's clothing. [See Damask, Diaper.] 

Lingerie (lan'-zhe-re). A French term of wide meaning, used, to 
describe collectively all the linen, cotton, silk and lace articles of under- 
wear which compose a woman's wardrobe, such as the night-gown, corset, 
undervest, drawers, equestrienne tights, skirts, collars, garters, hose, 
chemise, etc. 

Linoleum. A variety of floor cloth, consisting of oxidized linseed oil 
combined with ground cork, treated and masticated in the same manner as 
Kamptulicon (which see), to which it bears a close resemblence. The 
process of making linoleum was patented in 1863, by F. Walton, who 
specifies as the most suitable composition for the "body" of linoleum, 4 per 



244 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LIN 

cent of oxidized oil, l l A per cent of resin, }4. cwt. of kauri e gum and color- 
ing matter, mixed together in a steam heated receptacle, and afterwards 
mixed with an equal weight of ground cork dust, and spread on and pressed 
into a woven cloth of jute or hemp, between steam heated rollers. The 
weight required to press the material into the mesh of the cloth is 4,000 
pounds to the square inch. The pattern is printed on the surface by means 
of blocks. Linoleum has the advantage that it is not cold like tiling or oil 
cloth; it is made in all widths up to 6 yards. 
Linon. A French word signifying lawn. 

Linsey-woolsey. A coarse flannel of linen and wool mixed was first 
made at the village of Linsey, Suffolk County, England, in the year 1450. 
The linsey-woolsey of the present is a similar material, but into which 
cotton enters instead of linen, and with a weft of coarse, inferior wool. The 
attempt has been made to reserve the word linsey for a flam.el of linen and 
wool mixed, and woolsey for a mixture of cotton and wool, but without 
success. 

Lisle Thread (lile thred). An extremely fine and hard-twisted thread 
first made in the north of France, near the city of Lisle (formerly L'Isle, 
the island) which place probably originated and named it. It was formerly 
linen but is now spun from cotton. It is used especially for the knitting 
of gloves, hose, and underwear. The thread — or yarn — is made of superior 
cotton, treated in a peculiar manner. It is a well known fact that cotton fiber 
possesses a waxy surface which, if not destroyed by the numerous manipula- 
tions in manufacture, gives a brilliant appearance to the fabric when knitted 
up. Carding of cotton impairs and prevents this effect, but combing con- 
serves it. Carding leaves the fibers in jumble and criss-cross, while combing 
lays them straight, side by side. The latter process secures a stronger yarn 
and a more glossy one. The spinning of lisle thread is also done under 
moisture, thus forming a compact and solid yarn, with a surface capable 
of exhibiting the colors applied to it with a brilliancy unequalled by a softer 
yarn. The yarn is spun exceedingly fine, and tightly twisted, afterward 
being " singed " to remove the minute particles of nap or fuzz. The yarn 
for the manufacture of lisle fabrics bears the same relation to cotton yarn, 
"that worsted does to woolen yarn. [See Worsted.] 

Lisse (lece). [Fr. lisse, ribbon, border, piping.] A sheer fabric having 
the same organization as tarlatan, the difference being that lisse is woven 
finer, of either silk or cotton, and is a much more delicate material. It is 
used for ladies' neckwear and in the manufacture of ruching. When 
fluked or crimped it is called crape lisse. 

List. The border or edge of cloth forming the selvage, usually dif- 
ferent in color from the body of the fabric. List is torn off the fabric 
when garments are cut out, and is used principally in the manufacture of 
carpets. [See Carpets.] 



LIV COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 245 

Livery. A garment or entire costume formerly worn by the retainers 
of a feudal lord, the followers of a military superior, or the members of a 
company, as a gild or corporation. At the present time the term signifies 
the costume worn by servants, especially men servants. 

Llama (la '-ma). A South American animal similar in appearance to 
the alpaca and the camel. Its hair is frequently used in the manufacture 
of fine glossy dress fabrics, lace, tassels and braids. [See Wool.] 

Lockram. A kind of linen cloth, usually the cheapest and coarsest 
sorts. 

Logwood. A valuable dye, the product of the logwood tree, native 
to Central America, and grown also in the West Indies. The best qualities 
come from Campeachy, but is only obtained in small quantities. The wood 
deprived of its bark is sent to market in the form of large blocks or billets. 
It is of a dark, brownish-red color, of firm texture and so heavy as to sink 
in water. The wood was introduced into Europe as a dyeing substance 
soon after the discovery of America, but for many years (from 1581 to 1662) 
its use in England was prohibited by law, on account of the inferior dyes 
which at first were produced from it. Logwood is prepared for use by 
dyers in the form of small chips. The chips are moistened in hot water and 
spread in thin layers till a gentle fermentation sets up. These gradually 
become coated with brilliant metallic green crystals which are at once ac- 
cumulated and molded into cakes, when it assumes a dark purplish color. 
The principal use of logwood is for dyeing woolen goods, on which it pro- 
duces, with various mordants, shades of blue from a light lavender to a 
dense blue-black, according to the amount of logwood used and the number 
of dippings. Logwood blacks are a standard product of print factories. 
They assume a bright red tint by the action of dilute acids, a test by which 
they can readily be distinguished from aniline and other fast blacks. Log- 
wood bate is a color produced on woolen flannels and yarns, mordanted 
with alum and cream of tartar. It is similar in tone to indigo blue. The 
same color is sometimes produced on cotton, but is seldom used on account 
of its loose, fugitive character. 

Loom. [Literally, an utensil, from the Anglo-Saxon loma, furniture, 
utensils.] The loom is the machine on which weaving is performed, the 
simplest form of which is the hand loom, which is not now used in this 
country except by a few families in rural communities. The power loom 
has so greatly facilitated and cheapened the production of fabrics that it 
has entirely replaced the former. The power loom differs much in appear- 
ance from the old wooden hand loom, being altogether more compact, and 
made of iron and steel. The motion of all its parts are accomplished by 
steam or water power, or by power other than that of the operator. The 
hand loom is now almost wholly devoted to fine silks and carpets, nearly 
all other fabrics being woven on power looms, either with or without the 
Jacquard attachment. The credit of the invention of the power loom is 



246 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LOO 

due to the Rev. E. Cartwright, of England. The circumstance of his dis- 
covery, which will be found fully detailed in the following passage, are curi- 
ous, and of interest in the history of inventions. Mr. Cartwright, says: 

" Happening to be at Matlock in the summer of 1784, 1 fell in company 
with some gentlemen of Manchester, when the conversation turned on 
Arkwright's spinning machinery. One of the company observed, that as 
soon as Arkwright's patent expired, so many mills would be erected, and 
so much cotton spun, that hands never could be found to weave it. To 
this observation I replied, that Arkwright must then set his wits to work 
and invent a weaving mill. This brought on a conversation on the subject, 
in which the Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the thing 
was impracticable ; and, in defense of their opinion, they adduced argu- 
ments which I certainly was incompetent to answer, or even to compre- 
hend, being totally ignorant of the subject having never at any time seen 
a person weave. I controverted, however, the impracticability of the 
thing, by remarking that there had lately been exhibited in London an au- 
tomaton figure which played at chess. 

" Some little time afterwards, a particular circumstance recalling this 
conversation to my mind, it struck me that, as in plain weaving, according 
to the conception I then had of the business, there could only be three 
movements, which were to follow each other in succession, there would be 
little difficulty in producing and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I 
immediately employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into effect. 
As soon as the machine was finished, I got a weaver to put it in the warp, 
which was of such materials as sail-cloth is usually made of. To my great 
delight a piece of cloth, such as it was, was the production. As I had never 
before turned my thoughts to anything mechanical, either in theory or 
practice, nor had even seen a loom at work, or knew anything of its con- 
struction, you will readily suppose that my first loom must have been a 
most rude piece of machinery. The warp was placed perpendicularly, the 
reed fell with a force of at least half a hundred weight, and the springs 
which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve 
rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the 
machine at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving in my great 
simplicity that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured 
what I thought a most valuable property by a patent, 4th April, 1785. This 
being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you 
will guess my astonishment when I compared their easy mode of operation 
with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom, 
in its general principles nearly as they are now made; but it was not till 
the year 1787 that I completed my invention, when I took out my last 
weaving patent, August 1st of that year." 

Cartwright's original loom was but an imperfect machine, although his 
patent was minute and detailed. Both he and others devoted much labor 
to its improvement; and in bringing the invention to a successful issue he 



LOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 247 

spent from $150,000 to $200,000, while in return he received only a gift of 
$50,000 from the English government. The power-loom fought its way to 
supremacy but slowly, for an imperfect power-loom is no better than a 
hand-loom; and it was only after the minor adaptations and adjustments 
which frequently make the difference between success and failure were 
brought into operation that the real advantages of power-loom weaving be- 
came obvious. Even yet for some purposes, especially for weaving the very 
finest and most exquisite fabrics, the power-loom has not succeeded in 
supplanting hand work. The essential parts of a loom are: the frame, 
which supports the working parts; the yarn-beam, at the back part of the 
frame, upon which the warp-threads are wound; the cloth beam, at the front 
part of the frame, upon which the cloth is wound as the weaving proceeds; 
the heddles and their mounting; the reed, and the batten, which carries the 
reed. The warp-threads extend in parallel order from yarn-beam to the 
cloth-beam, being also passed in groups through the eyes of the heddles 
(or harness), and through the interspaces of the reed. The operation of 
winding the warp-threads upon the yarn-beam, and passing them in due 
order through the eyes of the heddles, preparatory to weaving, is called 
"setting up the piece." The function of the heddles is to form an opening 
among the warps for the passage of the shuttle, which carries the weft. 
The warp-threads are separated by the heddles into two or more groups, 
each controlled and alternately drawn up and down by the motion of the 
heddles, thus leaving an opening (or shed) between the ranks of the warp- 
threads, through which the shuttle is thrown, carrying a thread of weft. 
The reed then beats this weft up close against the weft previously thrown 
in. The reed is composed of thin slats or fine wires arranged in parallel 
relation between two parallel bars (similar to a comb), placed at such dis- 
tance as to allow the threads of the warp to pass through the spaces be- 
tween the slats or wires freely. The weft-thread is wound upon a bobbin 
which turns upon a wire in the shuttle, and permits the thread to unwind 
when the shuttle passes to and fro. The shuttle is made of a piece of 
hard wood pointed at each end, and having a hollow interior for the re- 
ception of the bobbin, Narrow fabric looms for ribbons, etc., generally 
use an eye-pointed needle as a substitute for the shuttle. The jacquard 
attachment is a device for forming openings for the passage of the shuttle 
between the warp-threads, and was invented by Joseph M. Jacquard, a 
Frenchman of Lyons. This device does away with the necessity of the use 
of heddles. The invention and adoption of this method of weaving at 
once advanced the art of figure-weaving beyond the mere limit of geomet- 
rical patterns into the realm of fine-art industry. It consists, essentially of 
a series of perforated metal cards, which one after another are laid flat 
upon the faces of a revolving and perforated prism, in such manner that 
the perforations in the cards successively and exactly cover corres- 
ponding holes in the prism. Wires, each separately controlling the 
engagement with a hook connected with a set of warp-threads, 



248 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. LOO 

are made to enter the holes of the metal card, and cause the 
warps to be lifted above the common level of the other warp- 
threads, and thus form an opening for the passage of the shuttle. 
Each card thus represents a different opening, and as there may be an in- 
. definite number of cards joined together by flexible connections, are 
carried upon the perforated revolving prism. As there may be also a 
number of shuttles carrying weft-threads of different tints, there is no 
limit to variety of form and color in the figures that may be woven. Looms 
for the most part are distinguished by the names of the material they 
weave, as ribbon-loom, figured-fabric loom, carpet-loom, etc. They differ 
chiefly in harness system, or in other words, in the manner in which the 
warp-threads are raised to form an opening for the passage of the shuttle. 
There may, in all sorts of looms, be several shuttles used, in order to in- 
troduce several colors of weft-threads, and thus produce more complicated 
patterns than can be formed by a single weft. [See Weaving.] 

Looped Cord Fabric. A method of weaving in which the weft threads 
are composed of spiral or looped cords. The cords resemble chenille, the 
difference being that the loops are tied at close intervals to a straight 
string of cotton or worsted yarn, which makes them immovable and last- 
ing. The looped cords are made of any size desired, from }£ to }£ inch in 
diameter, and of any color or sort of material. The product when made 
from a single cord is alike in appearance on both sides, but if made with a 
double cord (double woven), the two sides are of different colors. This 
fabric is used as a material for blankets, bed covers, carriage and lap 
robes, shawls, etc. Looped cord fabrics are sometimes finished in such a 
manner as to imitate very closely the skins of bears, buffaloes, foxes and 
other animals. In the process of making the material, the loops which 
constitute the pile are formed in different lengths. After the weaving of 
the fabric, the loops are drawn out by a revolving wire brush, and the pro- 
cess finishes the ends so as to make them finer at the points than at the 
roots. The pile is formed of different lengths, consequently the resulting 
" fur " is thicker at the bottom than at the outside, and in this manner and 
by properly dyeing can be made to resemble any sort of real fur that it is 
desired to imitate. These fabrics are intended for carriage rugs, door 
mats, and robes. 

Louisine (louis-ene'). A thin surah silk, woven in small checks and 
stripes, and also dyed in solid colors; used for children's wear and light 
summer costumes. 

Lustering. A process of giving to woolen cloth a permanent gloss 
and smooth surface which will not roughen with wear. This is accomplished 
by stretching the cloth tightly on a perforated copper cylinder, which is 
then placed in a steam chest and the steam turned on. It is then boiled 
for several hours and pressed by hydraulic power between heavy plates. 
[See Henrietta.] 



LUS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 249 

Lustrene (lus'-trene). A glossy twilled lining, made in imitation of 
Lyons silk, used for lining men's clothes and women's dresses. It measures 
forty inches in width. 

Lustring" (lus' -string). A variety of glossy silk dress fabric, in exten- 
sive use during the 17th and 18th centuries, and at present denoting plain, 
solid silk, neither figured nor corded, nor having a satin surface. 



M 

Mackintosh. The present use of rubber in the manufacture of cloth- 
ing was discovered and perfected by Charles Goodyear, who was born in 
Connecticut in 1800 and died in New York City in 1860, and although all 
the patents which were originally obtained by him have long since run out 
his name will always be associated with the practical use of India gum in 
the trade. It was the use of sulphur as a drier of the pure gum, combined 
with heat that first made his invention practical. Although rubber gar- 
ments have been in use since 1823, there has been a very marked improve- 
ment in the manufacture in recent years. Twenty years ago the only 
rubber clothing made and worn in this county was the plain, black, rubber- 
surface gingham or cambric garment. The greatest change brought about 
in the manufacture of rubber clothing has been the introduction of a water- 
proof cloth garment called a " Mackintosh." It takes its name from Charles 
Mackintosh, of Manchester, England, who was the original inventor of the 
cloth. It is a double-texture fabric — cloth on both sides, with rubber between 
that is not visible. When made up the garments resemble fashionably-cut 
coats or cloaks, and are almost odorless. They are either light or heavy, 
according to the quality of the material used. Mackintosh cloth is pre- 
pared by spreading on the cotton or woolen fabric layer after layer of 
india-rubber paste. Double-texture goods are made by uniting the rubber 
surfaces of two pieces of the coated material. The cloth is then cut in the 
desired shape for coat or cloak and the seams united by joining the soft 
material before it cools. There are a great many other kinds of water-proof 
garments made, of a cheaper class — single cloths with a rubber surface — 
but for durability and style the Mackintosh takes the lead, and are said to 
constitute seventy-five per cent of all rubber garments of a dressy charac- 
ter for both sexes now sold. A line of water-proof clothing is made of sin- 
gle gauzy texture with rubber facing. These garments are made for ladies 
of a variety of materials that imitate the latest styles of dress goods. They 
are also largely made in cambric, cashmere, silk and wool, in different pat- 
terns. Silk garments of this character are not durable, as they are made 
delicate and tender by the application of the rubber compound, which 
causes them to tear and crack too easily, and the reason is given that the 
oil in the silk rots the rubber. [See India-rubber, Rubbers.] 



250 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MAC 

Macrame (mac-ra-ma'). A strong, hard-twisted, cotton cord, pre- 
pared for the manufacture of macrame lace and trimming. Macrema is 
the name given by the Italians round about Genoa (the home and birth- 
place of the work) to a coarse material used for towels, the fringed ends of 
which are knotted in imitation of several of the stitches of the old knotted 
point lace; hence the origin of the name of the fancy work or lace, which 
dates as far back as the 15th century. [See Lace.] 

Madapollam (mad-a-pol ' -lam). [So called from Madapollam, a town 
in India.] A coarse heavy cotton cloth, similar to calico, but stouter, and 
intermediate in quality between calico and muslin; originally of Hindoo 
manufacture, where they were employed for quilts. Madapollam is now 
made in this country, being used in some sections for underclothing. The 
cloth measures 20 to 33 inches in width. It is also made double width 
and used far curtains, quilts, and comforts. 

Madder. A plant, the roots of which are ground up and when dis- 
solved in water, used as a red dye. The use of madder has been known 
from the earliest times, as cloth dyed with it has been found wrapped 
around the mummies of Egypt. It was not, however, until the beginning 
of the present century that the coloring property of madder began to at- 
tract especial attention. It had long before been noticed that cattle and 
hogs which fed on the green parts of the madder plant had a red color 
communicated to their bones, which was only removed or prevented by 
keeping them away from this kind of food for a considerable length of time. 
Also the claws and beaks of birds which fed on madder roots are affected 
in the same manner, and the milk of cows that use it is tinged with a red- 
dish color, which is even imparted to the butter; all showing it to be one of 
the most powerful coloring substances known. The numerous dyes it 
yields are of the greatest permanence, and is employed in dyeing linen 
and cotton red. Two kinds are fixed upon cotton: one is called madder- 
red, and the other, which possesses a much higher degree of luster and 
fixity, is called Tttrkey red, from the fact that for a long time it was mainly 
obtained from Turkey. The roots are now shipped to this country from 
Bengal and Turkey in large casks, and are broken up and pulverized by 
means of wooden stampers. The coloring principal of madder is termed 
alizarin, and in trade the term bears the name of "alizari. Madder colors 
range from brown, through yellow, rose, and red, to deep purple, and are 
much used in painting and the fine arts as well as for dyeing fabrics. [See 
Turkey Red.] 

Madras. A large handkerchief of ' silk and cotton, usually in bright 
colors, used by the negroes in the West India islands and elsewhere for tur- 
bans. Madras lace is a variety of thin, curtain material, often printed in 
colors. Madras work is simple embroidery done upon bright colored mad- 
ras handkerchiefs, the embroidery emphasizing the pattern of the stuff. 
These embroideries are used for banner-screens and furniture coverings. 



MAI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 251 

Mail Cloth. A heavy, lustrous silk fabric, of a weave resembling huck- 
a-back, or canvas, used chiefly for embroidering upon, as for fine table 
cloths, tidies, and doylies; the heavier qualities, with larger meshes is some- 
times utilized for bed spreads and portieres. 

Manila (man-il'-a). A fibrous material obtained from the leaves and 
stalks of a hemp plant that grows in the Phillipine islands. The fiber is 
used for a great variety of purposes, owing to the many qualities of the ma- 
nila plant. The outside bark is manufactured into cordage, binding twine 
and ropes, while the inner fiber is spun and woven into fine muslins and 
other delicate fabrics. Manila hats are also produced from this fiber. 
[See Hats.] 

Manteau (man '-to). A cloak or mantle; specifically, a woman's 
cloak or outer garment, particularly one that is open in front and displaying 
the skirt or petticoat. The manteau is said to have been introduced into 
England by Henrietta, queen of Charles I. who is also credited with the 
first introduction of female labor for making the outer clothing for women. 
Manteau-making thereafter became a common female occupation, and 
indeed, the term came in time to comprise all kinds of dressmaking. 

Mantilla (man-til' -a). A woman's head-covering, often of lace, which 
falls down upon the shoulders and may be used as a veil; worn in Spain 
and the Spanish colonies, in Genoa, and elsewhere. There are three kinds 
of mantillas which form the toilette of the Spanish senorita. The first is 
composed of white blonde, used only on state occasions, birthdays, bull- 
fights and Easter Monday. The second is black blonde, trimmed with 
deep lace. The third, which is used for ordinary wear, is made of black 
silk, trimmed with velvet. The Spanish woman's mantilla is held sacred 
by law, and cannot he seized for debt. 

Mantle. A loose, sleeveless garment, worn as an outer covering, fall- 
ing in straight lines from the shoulders; a simple kind of a cloak. The 
mantle, from its general simplicity of form, may be believed to be perhaps 
one of the earliest of garments. From a hairy skin huddled on to keep the 
wearer warm, an advance would be made to a cloak of skins, and from this 
to the mantle. These simple coverings were for centuries mere pieces of 
cloth of suitable size and shape, the upper corners of which were brought 
together and fastened at the neck or over one shoulder, with the loose ends 
flapping in front. Those worn during the middle ages and later were large 
and loose, capable of being drawn across the breast by a lace or chain. 
Long flowing mantles form a part of the distinguishing costume or insignia 
of British nobles and knights. Under various names and of different 
shapes, the mantle was common to the Greeks and Romans at all times, the 
toga of the latter being nothing but a loose mantle. [See Cloak.] 

Mantua-maker (man'-tu-a). One who makes women's gowns; a dress- 
maker. 



252 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MAN 

Manufacture. Anything made for use from raw materials. To fabri- 
cate, especially in considerable quantities or numbers, or by the aid of 
many hands or of machinery. Figuratively, to produce artificially. 

Marbled. A term in clotn-manufacture applied to fabrics woven with 
wefts of different colors, producing a variegated appearance resembling 
the veins and clouded appearance of marble. 

Mareeline (mar'-se-lin). A French trade name for a variety of thin 
silk used for the lining of women's dresses. 

Marking-cotton. Loosely-twisted cotton thread, dyed solid colors, 
usually Turkey red, and used for simple embroidery work. 

Marseilles (mar-salz'). [A name derived the city where first 
manufactured, Marseilles, France.] A stiff corded cotton fabric, used 
principally for ladies' white dresses and men's vests. The raised cord ex- 
tends from side to side of the web. Marseilles quilts are woven of very 
fine yarn in large, embossed figures, the latter presenting the appearance of 
protruding from a smooth and unbroken surface. They are woven in the 
Jacquard loom on the double weaving principle, the embossing being pro- 
duced by extra warp-threads. The backing weft sometimes floats outside 
the cloth, sometimes is bound inside just below the plain face, and at other 
parts the whole of the yarn is firmly united. Where the backing is brought 
inside, the top cloth is raised, while at those places where the warps are 
woven together, a depression is caused; in this manner the design is made. 
[See Weaving, Loom.] 

Marsella (mar-sel ' -la). Twilled marseilles. 

Marvelieux (mar-vel-o ' ). A fine, close-twilled, satin-faced silk dress 
fabric, resembling Rhadame dress silk, and having the same glossy finish, 
but with the sunken lines or twills hardly so perceptible as in satin 
Rhadame. 

Matelasse (mat-las-a'). A term applied to silk or woolen cloth to 
denote the particular style of its weaving. Such fabrics have a raised 
pattern on their surface which look as if they had been quilted or wadded. 
The French word matelasser means to quilt, or to wad. Matelassa silks 
have usually a rich flowered pattern, and are of one color, the pattern show- 
ing only by its slight relief or embossed appearance. The term has also 
been given to a heavy cloaking fabric, composed of cotton and wool, or 
silk, cotton and wool mixed; the design being large flower patterns, or 
brocades of an overshot or embossed appearance. 

Matting. A fabric of some coarse material, as rushes, hemp, coir, 
bamboo, palm leaves, etc., used as a cheap covering for floors. Cocoanut 
matting is made of coir, especially that which is heavy and thick. [See 
Coir]. Russia matting is made from the inner bark of the linden tree. 
Napier matting is made of hemp. Canton or China matting is of two 
kinds: "China" matting which is made in two-and five-yard pieces, and 



MAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. . 253 

fastened together in one 40-yard piece; and "Japan" matting, which is made 
in one 40-yard piece, without a joint and can be reversed. The making of 
matting has been known to the Chinese from a very early period. Grasses 
from which the matting is made grow in great abundance throughout 
China, but the principal variety is grown mostly in the province of Canton. 
To perfect its growth, the plant requires a great deal of moisture, and this 
it receives lavishly in the lowlands of Canton, being adjacent to both sea 
and rivers. The excessive moisture makes the growth so rapid that 
"hearing the grass grow" is almost a truism. The grass requires little 
cultivation and grows from the root instead of from seed. The variety 
most used, which grows nowhere except in China and Japan, is three- 
cornered, and very strong and tough. It grows very rapidly in the wet 
lands, and usually there are three or four crops harvested in a year, but 
specimens will not thrive or live long in this country. Life in the districts 
where the matting is made is odd and picturesque. Every peasant is em- 
ployed in the manufacture of matting, most of which is made in the homes 
of the workers. There are very few factories where numbers of workmen 
are gathered together, although the employer of the labor is usually a 
resident in Canton. Even children are enlisted in the work. They are 
employed in splitting the straw, which is the first operation after it is har- 
vested. This is necessary because the straw contains considerable sap, 
which, if allowed to remain in it, would decompose and rot the straw. 
Little Chinese youngsters split the long straw with sharp knives. These 
almond-eyed children are constantly at work, and acquire at an early age 
the knack required to properly cut the straw. The novice cannot do this, 
as it requires great care to prevent the straw from being cut too much. 
After the straw has been split in this way, and the sap has been removed, 
it is dried or cured in the same way that our American farmer cures his 
hay. It is then very tough and strong. The colors in the mattings, which 
have of late years elicited so much admiration because of their beauty and 
varied shades, are obtained in a very simple and primitive way. Large pots of 
earthenware are filled with the dyes, in the composition of which both min- 
erals and vegetables are used. The former (principally aniline dyes) make 
much the more satisfactory and lasting dyes, and are rapidly supplanting 
the latter altogether. When the dyes are ready the straws are taken and 
soaked in them. It frequently happens in the finer mattings that the same 
straws have different colors. One end may be blue the center red and the 
other end black. This is done by soaking the different parts of the straw 
in different dyes. But the same primitive and simple methods are followed 
in all cases. After being dyed the straws are taken out and spread to dry. 
There are different grades of matting, as of everything else, and one of the 
important features of making matting, is to get all the straws of a kind 
together. This sorting process requires more than ordinary intelligence, 
and usually has to be done under the supervision of an expert. The loom 
on which the matting is made is two yards long and one yard wide. The 



254 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MAT 

warp is either jute or cotton. In weaving ordinary matting, two men are 
usually employed. One handles the straw and the other keeps it even and 
in place. The straws are put in one at a time through a long hollow stick 
with a slit through the lower surface. The straw being too limber to stand 
the strain of being thrust through the warp, it is put into this stick, and the 
latter is forced through the warp strings. When it is in place, the hollow 
stick is pulled out. The other workman who has a heavy beam in his hand, 
forces down the straws so that there are no spaces between them. Some- 
times after the matting has been woven and dried, the straws shrink, leav- 
ing open spaces. These are closed up by what is called the "palming pro- 
cess," in which the straws are crowded together so as to make a solid 
even surface. 

In making what is called damask matting, it is necessary to manipulate 
the warp strings so as to drop certain colors at intervals. Practically the 
same process is observed in the United States and Europe in weaving 
figured cloths, where color effects are introduced at certain intervals by 
throwing a shuttle containing the colored yarns in between the warp-threads 
at different points. In cloths these are known as Jacquard spots, from the 
name of the loom used in producing them. This loom has been one of the 
most important factors in the production of high-class materials. [See Jac- 
quard, Loom]. Although it is worked by steam and is of the most com- 
plicated and intricate nature, the principle upon which it proceeds are 
much the same as those used in the hand-loom of the Chinese matting 
weavers. In the weaving of damask matting a Chinaman stands on top of 
the loom. He does what the mechanical contrivance in the Jacquard loom 
also performs; that is, he manipulates the warp strings, compressing 
them or lifting them, as is required to bring out the damask effects. 

One of the most interesting features of the matting trade in China is 
the shipment of the matting from Canton to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is 
the port whence all the Chinese product is exported. The matting is sent 
down the river in the curious boats, and the manufacturer at Canton never 
knows until his steamboat returns whether his cargo has safely arrived at 
its destination or not. The river is infested with pirates, who every now 
and then swoop down on the steamers, slaughtering the crew and stealing 
the cargo. Because of this every boat is a floating arsenal. She carries a 
good-sized canon and has all the machinery encased in iron. The engine 
room is also protected by iron plate, and the engineer works with a brace 
of revolvers and a cutlass by his side. Officers relieve each other in stand- 
ing guard at the engine room, always armed with loaded guns. The crew 
all go armed, and a vigilant guard is kept at all times. When the matting 
arrives at Hong Kong it is transferred to some of the harbor junks, which 
carry it out to the sailing vessels waiting for it. All the matting brought to 
this country is brought in American sailing vessels, and most of it is 
landed at New York City. Usually a trip takes from three to four months. 
The Chinese merchants look entirely different from the Chinamen seen in 



MAU COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 255 

this country. They are refined, intelligent, and very neat in their dress 
They wear sober-colored suits and dress in silk altogether. They under- 
stand the principles of business very thoroughly and are great speculators. 
It is no unusual thing for a Chinese merchant of importance to go out 
through the country and buy up hundreds of acres of matting straw on 
speculation. 

Mauve (mawv). [French mauve, mallow.] A reddish-purple dye 
obtained from aniline, so called from the resemblance of the color to the 
purple markings of the petals of mallows, a variety of garden flower. 

Measures. A system by which extent is ascertained or expressed; 
stated quantities. Our measures of lengths originated in the dawn of civiliza- 
tion and came down to us through the Anglo-Saxons. The yard was orig- 
inally the length of a king's arm; the foot the length of his pedal extrem- 
ities. The word inch is derived from the Latin uncia, a twelfth part, but 
why the foot was divided into twelfths instead of tenths or elevenths, no one 
claims to be wise enough to tell. It has been suggested that probably the inch 
was originally the length of the second joint of the forefinger, and that 
twelve of these about equal the length of the forearm, which averages about 
one foot. Aune, which is a cloth measure of one yard and a quarter, is 
derived from the Latin alna, forearm. The inch used to be divided into 
three "barleycorns," which were simply the length of three grains of barley. 
The mile was reckoned at 1,000 paces, as its name shows, being derived 
from the Latin phrase millia passuum, a thousand paces. The system of 
units ordinarily used in measuring length is termed Linear measure. The 
table is: 

Mile. Rod. Yard. 

1 = 320 = 1760 

40 = 220 

1 = h/ 2 

1 

Other units considered as belonging to Linear measure are the pace, 
5 feet; the fathom, 6 feet; the span, 9 inches; the hand, 4 inches (used in 
measuring the height of horses); the ell, \% yards; the aune, 1% yards; the 
meter, \^$ yards. 

Cloth measure is the standard system of linear units employed exclus- 
ively in measuring cloth. The table is: 
Yard. Quarters. 

1 =4 = 

1 = 

All dress silks are put up in folds \% yards long (1 aune). French 
cotton fabrics, such as sateens, lawns, organdies, etc., are usually put up in 
folds of one meter — one yard and a twelfth. The same fabrics made in the 



Feet. 




Inches. 


5280 


= 


63,360 


660 


= 


7,920 


16^ 


= 


198 


3 


= 


36 


1 


= 


12 



ails. 


Inches. 


16 


= 36 


4 


= 9 


1 


= 2X 



256 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MED 

United States are folded in 1-yard lengths. Both French and American 
silks, however, are folded m aune lengths. [See Metric System, Ell.] 

Medici (med ' -i-ki). A form of collar for ladies' cloaks and dresses, 
distinguished by being very high and stiffened, and finished with a slight 
roll at the top. 

Melange (ma-lonzh ' ). A term derived from the French, signifying a 
"mixture." In the dry goods trade melange is usually applied to dress 
fabrics of a black and white color mixture. There is also a variety of dress 
fabric, of French manufacture, woven with a cotton warp and woolen weft, 
termed melange. 

Melton, [So called from the name of original English manufacturer.] 
A stout kind of woolen cloth used for men's clothing. In recent years it 
has been largely used in the manufacture of ready-made overcoats. After 
melton leaves the loom, the cloth is fulled to a degree completely conceal- 
ing the warp and weft threads; then a rough nap is raised, which is next 
sheared down close to the surface, being finished without pressing or gloss- 
ing. It is dyed in solid colors, usually black or shades of brown. [See 
Fulling, Napping, Woolens.] 

Mercantile. A term pertaining to the traffic carried on by merchants; 
having to do with trade or commerce; trading; commercial. Mercantile 
applies only to the actual purchase and sale of goods, according to one's 
line of business. The mercantile class in a community comprises all such 
as are actually in the business of buying and selling. Commercial is 
a broader term, including the other, and covering the whole theory and 
practice of commerce, home or foreign. 

Mercer. A dealer in small wares, or in merchandise of any sort. In 
England the term is applied to a dealer in cloths of different sorts, 
especially silk. 

Merino. The finest wool-bearing breed of sheep in the world, of 
Spanish origin, so called from their anciently being under the superinten- 
dency of a maerino (major) or superintendent of the Spanish sheep pas- 
tures. For centuries the finer wools used for cloth-making throughout 
Europe were obtained from Spain, which country was the home of the 
famous Merino breed, developed from races of sheep introduced by the 
Romans, the originals of which formed the flocks of the patriarchs thou- 
sands of years ago, and have been the parent stock of all fine-wooled sheep 
since. The Spanish Merino sheep were introduced into Saxony in 1765, 
and by judicious crossing developed the famous Electoral breed, which 
produce the most expensive wool grown in Europe. At Rambouillet, 
France, Merino sheep have been bred for more than a century, and the 
flock is known all over the world. The Merinos of Rambouillet have the 
orignal character of the Spanish breed, without any taint or crossing. In 
America the Merinos are by far the most valuable breed, the wool they 



MER COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 257 

produce being second to none. The sheep of the United States are said 
to be 95 per cent. Merino, this breed thus forming the basis of the entire 
industry. What are known as the Saxon Merinos (Electoral breed) origi- 
nated from a flock of 200 Spanish sheep imported to Saxony in 1765. They 
were bred with great care, and improved over the original in quality of 
wool. These as well as typical specimens of the species in Spain are 
yearly brought to the United States and crossed with our native Merinos, 
to the manifest improvement of the fleece in every instance. [See Fleece, 
Wool.] 

Merino. A woolen dress fabric, first made at Bradford, England, in 
1826, of pure Merino wool, at which time it was one of the most expensive 
varieties manufactured. In appearance it is a thin, light "woolen " mate- 
rial, twilled on both sides, back and face alike. Merino is also a term 
applied to a variety of medium-weight, soft-finished knitted underwear, 
formerly made of merino wool, but now of cotton and wool mixed. 

Merveilleuse (mer ' -va-lyez). [Fr. merveilleux, marvelous, exquisite.] A 
fashionable woman under the Directory in France at the close of the 18th 
century, at which time ultra-fashionable people affected extraordinary 
innovations in costume. Hence, any new style in female costume. [See 
Marvelieux.] 

Mesh. One of the open spaces in bobbinet; an opening in netting or 
network of a size determined by the distance apart of the knots by which 
the crossing twines or threads are united. In lace, the whole background, 
often formed of threads very irregularly spaced, is termed the mesh of the 
fabric. 

Meter. A French measure of 39.37 inches, or nearly 3 feet 3}i inches. 
It is usually counted as 1 T V yards. 

Metric System. A system of measurement in which the meter is the 

fundamental unit. It was first adopted in France In the year 1800, and is 
now in use in most other civilized countries, except the English speaking 
countries, though universally adopted for scientific measurement. Its use 
is permitted in Great Britain, and was legalized in the United States in 
1866. The meter, the unit of length, is the one ten-millionth part of the 
earth's meridian quadrant; that is, the distance from either pole to the 
equator, which equals just one-fourth of the earth's circumference. The 
meter is one ten-millionth part of this distance. Its length is 39.37 inches, 
or nearly 3 feet B^i inches. The following is a table of equivalents : 

1 millimetre = 0.03937 inches. 

1 centimetre = 1.3937 inches. 

1 decimetre 3.93708 inches. 

1 metre = 3.2809 feet. 

1 decametre ■ 10.9363 yards. 

1 hectometre = 109.3633 yards. 

1 kilometer = 0.62138 miles. 
17 



258 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MIL 

Milan Braid. A variety of flat braid used for trimming and binding, 
made of mohair fiber, on account of its superior wearing qualities. The 
number or "size" of Milan braid is indicated by the number of ribs or plaits 
extending from end to end of the web. [See Braid.] 

Milled Cloth. Cloth which has been thickened and shrunk in a fulling 
mill, until it is fulled or felted. Double-milled cloth describes those sorts 
which have been* twice milled to give them increased thickness. [See 
Fulling.] 

Milliner. Formerly a man who sold ribbands and dresses for women; 
now, in common usage, a woman who makes and sells bonnets and other 
headgear for women. Milliner is a corruption of "Milaner," so called from 
the city of Milan, Italy, which at one time gave the law to Europe in all 
matters of taste, dress and elegance. 

Milling. The felting or fulling of cloth to thicken it. Double-milled 
cloths are woolen cloths which are fulled or shrunk by being put through 
the fulling mill twice. [See Fulling.] Also a method of softening and 
opening the pores of hides by placing them in a hollow revolving drum in 
contact with oil or any ameliorating liquid, whereby the liquid is worked 
into all parts of the leather. [See Leather.] 

Mill-raye. [A French term meaning all striped or all streaked^ A 
variety of percale, so named as being descriptive of the pattern, which con- 
sists of minute, thread-like stripes, alternately black and white. The width 
of this light, printed cotton cloth is 32 inches. It is washable material and 
is used for children's frocks and boys' shirts. 

Mitts. A sort of glove without fingers, or with very short fingers. 
Mitts sometimes cover the hand only, and sometimes the forearm to the 
elbow. A common material is black and colored lace ; they are also knitted 
of silk of various colors. They were especially worn by women during the 
early part of this century, the fashion dying out about 1830. Then the 
custom slumbered for 50 years, and was revived in 1880, or thereabouts, 
since which time they have formed a staple and constant article of dry 
goods throughout the entire country. Mitts are principally made of silk 
and on account of the high protective tariff on manufacturers of silk goods, 
are largely made in this country. Several domestic manufacturers have 
grown rich beyond expectation by making this class of goods, and so 
thoroughly have they adapted themselves to supply every imaginable want 
of the trade in color, length and texture that the domestic productions 
entirely surpass the imported goods. [See Gloves.] 

There are some romantic facts related to the early history of mitt 
manufacturure. "About the year 1700 open-work mitts and gloves and 
hose ornamented with eyelet holes made by using the work-needle or hand- 
ticklers, and which had also been embroidered by hand, were imported into 
England. These were quickly imitated there, but still by hand. T he *ater 
introduction of an improvement on the hosiery frame by Strutt led to many 



MIT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 259 

attempts to make these eyelet ornaments on a like principle (that is, by 
machine-knitting). These efforts were generally carried on with much 
mystery, for the profit anticipated from success was very great, as the 
wages obtained by hands making such work were from $1.25 to $1.75 per 
day if diligent, at a time when meat was only 4 cents a pound, and bread in 
proportion. Amongst these experimenters was a stocking-knitter named 
Butterworth. He successfully overcame all obstacles, and succeeded in 
knitting lace mitts by machinery, but was obliged to confide his plan to a 
machinist named Betts, before he could get the necessary machinery con- 
structed. Eventually a supply of cash became necessary, and was obtained 
from one Shaw, when the original inventor was deliberately set aside. 
Further funds becoming requisite to procure a patent, the aid of John 
Morris, a hosier of Nottingham, was procured, and the parties proceded to 
take out a patent. Betts then, in the absence of Shaw, for a large sum of 
money, made over the entire interest in the patent to Morris. Shaw was so 
chagrined by the transfer to Morris without any renumeration to himself 
that he proceded to Holland to set up the manufacture there. He visited 
Brussels, Lille and Valenciennes, but met with no encouragement. At the 
latter city he saw a widow making mitts and handkerchiefs in imitation of 

Spanish open-work by the new method by which she was then 

making silk mitts with comparative ease and rapidity; and he found that 
they could be thus produced at a lower cost than with the Butterworth 
machine. He brought the widow and her plan to England, and as the 
apparatus cost little, he soon made great progress in its use. But Morris, 
having plenty of funds, succeeded in vastly improving his machine, and 
completely ruined Shaw by lowering the prices on the goods; and so this 
tale of double-dealing and fraud was brought to a close." 
Mocha. See Gloves. 

Mockado or Mock Velvet. A stuff manufactured in the 16th and 17th 
centuries; described as a fabric made of cotton in imitation of velvet; 
probably similar to what is now known as velveteen or corduroy. 

Mohair. Mohair, Brilliantine and Sicillian are dress fabrics having 
the same organization and construction. They are each woven with cotton 
warp and a mohair or alpaca weft. Brilliantine is the finest, woven the 
closest, and presents the brightest and most lustrous surface. Mohair is a 
grade lower than brilliantine, while Sicillian is distinguishhd by being a 
somewhat heavier and stouter fabric than either of the others. Mohair 
fiber in all textile goods is conducive to wiry strength as well as desirable 
beauty, and fabrics composed of it are esteemed for their dust-defying 
quality, which fits them especially for traveling purposes. These fabrics 
are frequently printed with attractive floral designs after the manner and 
style of challis and printed silks. 

Mohair is the hair of the angora goat. The word is a corruption of the 
German mohr (a Moor). The material was first Introduced into Spain by 



260 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MOH 

the Moors, and from thence brought into Germany. Under the head of 
Angora will be found a full account of the origin and production of this 
fiber. The following table indicates the amount of mohair fiber imported 
by this country for the last five years and the average price of same : 

Avg. price. 

Pounds. Cents. 

1887 842,527 26% 

I 1888 455,215 28 4-9 

1889. 1,841,312 28 3-10 

1890 1,110,520 282-5 

1891 1,679,599 26 

Moire (mwo'-ra). The French term for clouded or watered silks. The 
weave on which a moire effect is produced is usually a gros grain. The 
goods are woven in what the Lyons weavers call e7i jumelle, that is, in 
double widths, two pieces being woven together. This is necessary in 
order to obtain the bold waterings or moirage, which process depends not 
only on the quality of the silk, but greatly in the way in which they are 
folded when subjected to the enormous pressure in watering. When the 
pieces are being folded, care is taken that the grains of one piece shall fall 
into the cavities of the other, and vice versa, for if they ride one across the 
other the watering will be spoiled. For more careful work, the outside 
edges of the two pieces are provided with linen threads at stated inteivals, 
which are then knotted together so as to keep the pieces better over each 
other and the grains perfectly parallel. That very careful weaving, in the 
first place, is indispensable for obtaining good results, will be obvious. 
After being properly folded the silk to be moired is wetted slightly, and 
then submitted to an enormous pressure, generally in a hydraulic machine. 
The pressure (generally from 80 to 100 tons per piece) applied on the 
material being uneven, the grain is flattened in the parts desired and the 
result resembles waves, or moisture drawn into curious lines. For moire 
antique the pattern is engraved on a brass roller, and the material passed 
between it and one having a plain surface, under great pressure. This 
style is sometimes called by manufacturers long moire, the moirage being 
more scattered, longer, and in finer, but not less effective, lines. Accord- 
ing to the figures produced on the cloth, moires are divided into plain and 
fancy, the latter showing more elaborate patterns. Moire antique is an 
expensive fabric and is often seen in fancy combinations with satin stripes 
and swivel effects. The same principle that governs the production of 
these effects on broad goods also applies to ribbons. Moire nacre is a 
flowered pattern woven on the Jacquard loom, imitating very successively 
the natural color and shine of mother of pearl. The moire process is some- 
times applied to a mohair fabric known as moreen, which is only an English 
corruption of the word moire. [See Watering.] 

Moleskin. [So called from its fancied resemblance to the skin of a 
mole.] A heavy cotton fabric, double-twilled and extra strong, piece-dyed 
in shades of brown; used for men's clothing where rough wear is expected. 



MOM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 261 

The cloth is always napped on the wrong side. Imitations are made with 
a slight nap on the inside and printed on the outside with small checks and 
stripes, and used for men's summer pantaloons. [See Fustian.] 

Momie. French for mummy. [See Mummy.] 

Montanac (mon'-ta-nac'). [Probably derived from montanic, rough, 
uneven.] A heavy, napped woolen overcoat-cloth, distinguished by a por- 
tion of the nap being formed in woolly loops, intermixed with a soft straight 
nap, similar to that with which Fur Beaver is finished. 

Moquette (mo-kef). [French moquette, tuft of wool.] A variety of 
carpeting, with a soft, velvety nap of wool, and a warp of hemp or linen. 
[See Carpet.] 

Mordant. A substance used to fix colors; a substance which has an 
affinity for, or which can at least penetrate the fibre of the material to be 
colored, and which possesses also the property of combining with the dye- 
matter, and of forming with it an insoluble compound within or about the 
fibres. Albumen, gluten, gelatin, tannin, certain oils, certain acids, 
alumina, soda and lead salts are used as mordants. To obtain permanent 
dyes from the great majority of coloring materials, the use of mordants is 
found absolutely necessary. Fiber cannot usually be dyed by means of 
ready formed lakes, or native dyeing extracts, for the reason that they are of 
too coarse and gross a nature to penetrate the fiber and remain there. 
When they are applied to any sort of fibres without the use of a mordant, 
they rest for the most part on the surface, and are, therefore, fugitive and 
easily removable by washing or friction. The art of the dyer, therefore, 
consists in so combining these three elements — cloth, mordant and color- 
ing matter — that he may obtain the formation of a color in the body of 
each individual fiber whereby it will be chemically combined with the 
fibre and permanently retained. There are three principal ways in which 
the mordant and coloring matter can be put into contact with the yarn or 
cloth, the modifications of which constitute the whole art of dyeing: 1. By 
the first method, which is by far the most common, the cloth is separately 
impregnated with the mordant, which is by various means decomposed, so 
as to deposit its base in an insoluble state within the fiber, and afterwards 
the coloring matter is applied. Take, for example, the case of dyeing a 
common black from logwood upon calico, the cotton composing which has 
no affinity for the coloring matter of logwood. The first process is to pass 
the calico through a hot solution of sulphate of iron, and to remove the 
excess by passing the cloth through rollers; the cloth, either previously 
dried or not, is then passed through a mixture of lime and water which has 
the effect of decomposing the iron salts. A washing in water to remove 
the excess of lime prepares the calico for coming into contact with the 
logwood. The calico, which now has a buff color, when placed into a hot 
decoction of logwood speedily acquires a dark hue in about half an hour, 
and has become dyed of a dense black color, and, when smoothed and 



262 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MOR 

finished, forms the common black calico of commerce. A variety of other 
cases might be cited. Woolen cloth boiled for some time in bichromate of 
potash acquires a certain amount of salt of chromium, which enables it to 
take a black color from logwood, or other colors from other dyestuffs. 
Woolen cloth, boiled with salts of tin, is enabled to dye up a brilliant 
scarlet in a decoction of cochineal; boiled with alum, it will take a great 
variety of colors in various dyestuffs. The practice of calico printing 
illustrates in a very forcible manner the action of mordants. By the aid 
of proper machinery described in an article upon that subject, portions of 
a piece of calico are impregnated with mordants, and these portions alone 
acquire color from the dyeing solutions, and thus designs or patterns are 
produced upon a white ground. The most usual method of impregnating 
the cloth, composed of any sort of fiber, with mordant, consists in immers- 
ing it in a hot bath containing the required salts, which, under high tem- 
perature, decomposes and is absorbed by the fiber. It is then said to be 
mordanted and the cloth is ready to receive the dyestuff. 

2. A second method, less general than that above described, is to ap- 
ply the coloring matter before the mordant. It is only resorted to with 
heavy goods which absorb a large quantity of the dye-color, or with light 
tints upon other fabrics; dyes produced in this way are not so permanent 
as those produced by the first method. 

3. A third method is to apply the mordant and coloring matter together, 
to the cloth or yarn. In common piece dyeing this plan is seldom followed, 
on account of unsatisfactory results. It consumes less time, however, and 
calico is frequently colored by this process. [See Cochineal, Calico, 
Logwood, Indigo, Madder, Turkey-red.1 

Moreen. [Formerly moireen, from moire]. A fabric of mohair or wool 
filling and cotton warp; formerly made in imitation of moire silk, for pur- 
poses of upholstery. It was sometimes plain, but more commonly 
"watered" with embossed patterns by passing the cloth over a hot brass 
cylinder, on which was engraved various flowers and other fancy figures. 
At present it is manufactured to some extent and used for petticoats, bath- 
ing dresses, etc., and the heavier qualities for curtains. 

Morocco. A term used by leather manufacturers, having two distinct 
significations. 1. Leather made from goatskins tanned with sumac, origin- 
ally in Morocco, Algiers, but now produced in Europe and America from 
imported skins. The peculiar qualities of true morocco are great firmness of 
texture with flexibility, and a grained surface of which there are many vari- 
eties. This surface is produced by an embossing process called graining. 
True morocco is of extreme hardness, and makes the most durable book 
bindings; it is used also for upholstering seats, and for boot-tops. 2. It is also 
a general term used to describe fine light-weight leather in imitation of the 
above, made chiefly of sheep, lamb and kid skins as well as of goat, and 
used in the manufacture of light shoes for men, women and children. 



MOS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 263 

Mosquito Netting 1 . A coarse cotton gauze with large open meshes. 
The most common kind has a single warp confined between two weft 
strands. Mosquito net is put up in bunches of twelve pieces, the com- 
bined length of which is 100 yards — 8% yards per piece. 

Mourning. The custom of showing grief by outward signs is univer- 
sal. The general form in civilized countries consists of wearing garments 
of colors which vary widely. In the United States and Europe the ordi- 
nary color for mourning is black; though white is mixed with black for 
slight mourning, and also occasionally employed at the death of children 
and maidens. In China, white is invariably the color adopted for mourning; 
in Turkey, blue or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown. Persia 
adopts pale brown; Burmah, yellow; Tartary, deep blue; Asia-Minor, sky 
blue. The Spartan and Roman ladies mourned in white; and the same 
color prevailed formerly in Castile on the death of their princes. Kings 
and cardinals mourn in purple. Each people have their reasons for the 
particular color which they affect: white is supposed to denote purity; yel- 
low that death is the end of human hopes — in reference to leaves when they 
fall, and flowers when they fade, which become yellow.' Brown denotes the 
earth, whither the dead return. Black, the privations of life, as being the 
the privation of light. Blue expresses the happiness which it is hoped 
the deceased will enjoy in the land beyond the skies; and purple or violet, 
sorrow on the one side and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black 
and blue. [See Color.] 

Mousquetaire (mus-ke-tare'). A style of ladies' kid glove, distin- 
guished by its long loose top and a lengthwise slit at the wrist; so-called 
from its resemblance to a military glove, or the glove of a musketeer (French 
mousquetaire). The term was also, in 1850, applied to woman's turn-over 
collar, made of plain, starched linen. 

Mousseline-de-laine (mos-e-line' de-lane'). [French for muslin of 
wool.] An untwilled woolen dress cloth made in many solid colors and 
also printed with varied patterns. It is now fallen into comparative disuse. 
[See Delaine.] 

Muff. A case or cover into which both hands may be thrust to keep 
them warm. It is commonly of a rounded form, and made of fur, but some- 
times of velvet or silk in a bag shape or other fanciful design. The muff 
was introduced into France toward the close of the 16th century, at which 
time the fur was placed inside, and satin, velvet or some other expensive 
material without. It was used by both men and women in the 17th century 
and often was an essential part of the dress of a man of fashion, being com- 
monly suspended from the neck by a string, but is now exclusively an ar- 
ticle of female apparel. Together with a boa or tippet it forms a "set of 
furs." 

Muffler. A term derived from the French word amusler, to cover. 
The muslau or muffle is a word of French derivation which has been in 



264 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MUL 

use for centuries to describe a cover for the mouth, nose, and even the 
whole face; hence our word muzzle. Muffler, in early times, was the name 
of a sort of veil worn by females. The French at present call their winter 
gloves moufles, and single pieces of stuffed fur with which a woman covers 
her hands, a muff. In the United States a muffler is a neckerchief, wrap- 
per, or scarf, made of cotton, wool or silk, and worn around the throat for 
the procurement of warmth. 

Mull. [From Latin mollio, to soften.] An extremely thin, soft and 
transparent kind of muslin, used for dresses, neckwear, trimming, etc. It 
is woven of fine, soft cotton yarns, free from sizing or starch. Thin, 
changeable silk is also sometimes termed mull, especially the sorts finished 
without dressing, and used for millinery purposes. 

Mullmull. Same as Mull. 

Mull Muslin. A bleached muslin of the finest and softest quality. 

Mummy Cloth. Cloth in which the mummies or embalmed human 
bodies, taken out of the Pyramids of Egypt, were enveloped, the material 
of which was linen. This cloth is in the form of bandages wound round 
and round the body, sometimes to the number of 20 thicknesses. The 
stuff presents a surface of a rough and irregular weave, caused by the 
threads intersecting each other at irregular intervals. This old Egyptian 
fabric is imitated in various materials at the present day; the term "mum- 
my" or "momie" being applied to the weave rather than to the material of 
which the fabrics are composeed. The "momied" effect is produced by 
using a fine warp thread and heavy weft, and causing them to cross 
each other at irregular intervals. By this means a surface with a puckered 
or indented appearance is formed. The weave was first used in a French 
all-wool dress fabric, but is now imitated in linen and cotton cloths. 

Mungo. See Shoddy. 

Muslin. A name derived from Mosul, a city in Asiatic Turkey, long 
celebrated for the fineness and delicacy of its cottons. Mosul, while it did 
not originate the muslin manufacture, yet earned for itself the reputation 
at one time of producing muslins of the greatest beauty. Cotton for un- 
known ages has been grown in that portion of Asia in plenty; the inhabi- 
tants, especially the women, were gifted with such quick feeling of finger 
that they could spin thread of more than hair-like fineness. Cotton with 
them took the place of silk in the loom, and "gold was not forgotten in the 
weaving." Their work, not only because it was so much cheaper, but from 
its own peculiar beauty and comeliness, won for itself a high place in com- 
mon estimation, and the name of the town where it was wrought in such 
perfection was consequently given to it as its distinctive title. 

The original home, however, of muslin-weaving is in India, where since 
the time when the mind of man runneth not to the contrary it has formed 
an important industry, and where even yet wonderful fabrics of airy light- 
ness continue to be woven with the aid of only the most rude and primitive 



MUS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 265 

looms. These India looms consist merely of two bamboo rollers and a 
pair of heddles and a shuttle. The loom in its entirety is attached between 
any two native trees affording a comfortable shade. The rigid and clumsy 
fingers of our American weavers would scarcely be able to make even a 
piece of rough canvas with the instruments the Hindoo uses in making a 
web of the finest cambric muslin. It cannot but seem astonishing that in a 
department of industry, where the raw material has been so grossly neg- 
lected [see Cotton], where the machinery is so rude, that the results should 
be fabrics of the most exquisite delicacy and beauty, unrivalled by the pro- 
ducts of civilized nations, even those best skilled in the mechanical arts. 
This can only be explained by the remarkably fine sense of touch possessed 
by that effeminate people — the Hindoos— by their patience and gentleness, 
and by the hereditary continuance of muslin-manufacture in families 
through many generations, which leads to the training of children from 
their very infancy in the processes of the art. For the lightest India mus- 
lins the young women spin the thread during the early part of the day, 
while the dew is yet on the ground; for such is the extreme tenuity of the 
fiber that it will not bear manipulation in the dry atmosphere after the sun 
has risen. Some of the allusions to the wonderful fineness of these India 
muslins appear to border on the marvelous. We read in a missionary's 
account of a dress length of cotton being enclosed in a nut-shell; and of a 
daughter being reproved by her father for the indecent transparency of her 
dress, retorting that she was robed in 40 yards of the stuff. Another mis- 
sionary writing from Serampore asserts that "some muslins are made so 
fine you can hardly feel them with your hand, and when laid on the grass 
to bleach, and the dew is fallen on it, it is no longer discernible." And the 
same writer says : "There is made at Seconge a sort of muslin so fine that 
when a man puts it on, his skin appears as plainly through it as though he 
were quite naked; but the merchants are not allowed to transport it, for the 
governor is obliged to send it all to the Great Mogul's seraglio and to the 
principal lords of the court, to make the sultanesses and noblemen's wives 
shifts for the hot weather; and the King and the lords take great pleasure 
to behold them in these shifts, and to see them -dance with nothing else 
upon them." The name bestowed by the Romans on the fabric — ventus 
textilis, or "woven wind "■ — is not entirely figurative. It is remarkable that 
every distinct quality of muslin made in India is the production of a par- 
ticular district, in which the art of making the fabric has been transmitted 
for centuries from father to son — a custom which alone must have con- 
duced to the perfection of the manufacture. The history of cotton-weav- 
ing in India is curious in many ways. When the East India Company first 
traded in the Eastern seas, India cotton fabrics were without a rival in 
European markets. The beautiful muslins of Dacca, which were famous 
when Babylonian and Assyrian kings ruled Western Asia, were among the 
wares first brought to England and America by the old East India Com- 
pany. In 1787 the value of the imports of these muslins into England was 



266 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. MUS 

estimated at $2,000,000 annually. But the invention of the spinning jenny 
in England was presently followed by a cry for protection by both the 
British and American manufacturers. AJieavy duty was imposed on all 
India goods and the manufacture of Dacca muslins for export purposes 
was killed. 

The term muslin, as accepted in the United States signifies a thin, 
plain woven cotton cloth, brown or bleached, of any width. The India mus- 
lin is known by different names, according to its place of manufacture and 
and its fineness and beauty. The first muslin woven in this country was at 
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, December 21, 1790, by Samuel Slater, the father 
of American cotton manufacture. Prior to this date all common muslins 
consumed by the colonists were imported, being of English manufacture, 
and of linen warp, with cotton weft. Proximity to the raw material, and 
the inventions of the cotton gin and spinning appliances made it possible 
for the United States to produce her own muslins. In 1890, one hundred 
years from the date of the erection of the first muslin loom, there were the 
following number of mills engaged directly and indirectly in the production 
of brown, bleached and colored cottons: 

Mills making bleached and colored cottons . 150 

Mills making brown and bleached cottons 125 

Mills making colored cottons 250 

Mills making print cloth . 85 

The above if added together would make 610 establishments, but the 
number is not so large as that, for the reason that many mills make in vary- 
ing quantity all of the cottons described, while others are devoted exclu- 
sively to specific manufactures, such as brown and bleached sheetings and 
shirtings, or brown and colored cottons or print cloths, and are necessarily 
contained in each classification. However, the above figures show one 
thing clearly: that all of the various " regular" and "standard" tickets, as 
well as " fancy" brands of brown and bleached muslins made in this coun- 
try, numbering well up among the thousands, are produced by these factor- 
ies. While diversification of quality and style of our domestic cotton fab- 
rics is steadily and rapidly enlarging, it is a question whether they will keep 
pace in this direction with the increase in the variety of fancy names given 
them. As an illustration, one particular make of muslin having a standard 
reputation will not only be made and branded with its own original and reg- 
ular ticket, but to satisfy the caprice or necessity of the trade in various 
parts of the country, will probably have a dozen different fancy names that 
bear no relation whatever to the original brand or to the name of the fac- 
tory making it. This is due to the keen and close competition on the part 
of both jobbing and retail trades, which reduces sometimes the profit to 
such a low ebb, that they cannot afford to carry the goods unless they have 
some protection in the way of fancy tickets that are not strictly competi- 
tive, so far as the brand is.concerned. 

The following estimate is the cost making one pound of cotton into 
brown muslin: 



MUS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 267 

CENTS. 

One p< rand middling cotton, delivered at mill 8 50 

Waste 1 48 

Labor 3 80 

General expenses 2 08 

I • 

15 86 

' "Standard" muslin weighs 2.85 yards to the pound. 

The cost (or nearly so) of manufacturing any brown muslin may be as- 
certained by dividing 15.86 (cents) by the number of yards of the muslin to 
the pound. Heavy muslins like Indian Head and Wachusett A weigh 2.85 
yards to the pound; PepperillR3.75 per pound; Lawrence LL 4 yards to the 
pound; while light muslin, like Augusta B weigh 4.55 yards per pound; Great 
Falls N 5, Utica C 5.45, and Windsor H 5 yards to the pound. Bleached cot- 
tons usually come one cent higher than brown, and lose a certain per cent of 
their weight in bleaching. A power loom weaves five yards of muslin per 
hour, and one young woman or boy can tend from eight to twelve looms. 

The variety of fancy muslins are endless, the following being among 
the most-used descriptions: Ami muslin, an extremely fine muslin made 
at Ami, in the presidency of Madrid, Bengal; Book muslin, a thin starchy 
muslin, used principally for covering books and as lining for cheap dresses; 
Corded muslin, a variety in which a thick, hair-like cord is introduced into 
the fabric; Coteline muslin, a hair-cord muslin, printed in all patterns and 
colors. It is of French manufacture, thirty-one inches wide, and designed 
for dress material; Dacca muslin, a fine thin variety made at Dacca, in 
Bengal. The machine-made "Dacca" muslin, produced in this country is 
chiefly used for curtains. It is two yards wide, when figured, and narrower 
when plain. Figured muslin, varieties wrought in the loom to imitate tam- 
boured muslin, or muslin with figures printed in color on it; Linen muslin, 
same as leno; Tamboured muslin, see Tambour. [See Appendix "B," 
Sheeting.] 

Mutual Accounts. Accounts in which each of two firm or parties have 
one or more charges against the other. 

Myrtle-green. A rich pure green of full chroma but low luminosity. 
[See Colors.] 

Mysore Silk. Soft fine undressed silk of Hindoo manufacture. They 
are imported in all colors, printed and plain. The patterns are of a Hindoo 
character, chiefly all-over floral designs, although some are printed in gold 
and silver in bold large figures, while others are printed black on the 
natural color of the silk. 



Iff 

Jfacre (nak-ra'). A French word applied in the United States to dec- 
orated objects; as nacre porcelain, nacre ribbons. The word in the original 
French means a mother-of-pearl shell, and the application in the country 



268 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. NAl 

signifies having an iridescence resembling that of the inner, polished por- 
tion of mother-of-pearl. [See Moire.] 

Nail. A unit of English cloth-measure 2X inches, or one-sixteenth of 
a yard. Abbreviated N. 

Nag-apore Silk. A kind of India silk, soft, slight and undressed, and 
usually in plain colors of the dyes peculiar to the far East. 

Nainsook (nan'-suk). [From Hindoo nainsukh,a. term which was 
formerly used to designate India muslin, or sprigged muslin.] A kind of 
fine, soft, bleached muslin, woven in small damasked checks and stripes, 
and used as a summer fabric, principally for the making of white dresses 
and aprons. 

Nankeen (nan-ken'). A plain-woven cotton fabric, in former years 
(1820-1840) extensively imported from Nanking, China, to Europe, whence 
its name; the "king," however in the course of time and travel having 
been changed to "keen." It was long supposed the Chinese held the secret 
for dyeing its peculiar yellowish-buff color, which was found to be remark- 
ably durable. But it was finally discovered by some missionaries that this 
peculiar color was not produced by dyeing at all, the cloth being made of a 
buff-colored variety of cotton, which is still occasionally grown in China 
and India. A similar cotton grows in small quantities in the Southern 
States, the yellow color apparently depending on some peculiarity in the 
soil. The color of our "artificial" nankeen is produced by an elaborate 
process, in which the cloth is first dipped into a saturated solution of alum; 
then a decoction of oak-bark; then in a bath of lime-water; and next in a 
bath of nitro-muriate of tin, which makes a permanent dye. Blue, white, 
and pink varieties have been made, but the brownish-yellowish variety 
formerly in use for trousers by gentlemen and corsets by ladies, is the 
nankeen w.th which the name is generally associated. The weave is 
either plain or twilled, of the weight of heavy sheeting. At present its use 
is confined ..o the manufacture of children's clothes and underwear. 

Nap. [French naper, to nip off the knots on the surface of cloth.] The 
wooly surface of felt, cloth aad plants. Specifically, the surface-covering 
of down or short fibers combed out of the substance of a fabric and all 
lying smoothly in one direction. The nap is the surface-covering of a 
fabric formed by teasling, the direction in which it lies always indicating 
the warp. From the nature of the surface of napped fabrics, as well as 
structure of the body of the cloth, they necessarily form very warm arti- 
cles of clothing, the closeness of texture and the intermixing of the loose 
fibers of the nap all tending to assist in retaining warmth. [See Teas- 
ling.] 

Napery. [From Fr. nappe, a table-cloth.] Linen cloths used for domes- 
tic purposes, especially for the table; table-cloths, napkins, tea-cloths, etc. 
[See Table Linen.] 



NAP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 269 

Napkin. [From Fr. napfia, which means literally "little cloth."] A 
small, square piece of linen cloth, now usually damask, used at table to 
protect the clothes. In the 16th century handkerchiefs were commonly 
called napkins, and they are still styled pocket-napkins by the Scotch. 
Napkins are woven in pieces of long lengths like linen damask, and sold at 
wholesale in separate packs of one dozen each, all attached. The modern 
ocean steamer uses on each voyage about 1,200 napkins a day, and as many 
towels. As they do no laundrying on a trip, they are obliged to have a stock 
of from 10,000 to 20,000 of each of these household articles. [See Table 
Linen.] 

Napping 1 . See Teasling. 

Natural Thread. The fiber of the mescal plant, grown in New Mexico 
and Arizona. It looks very much like a cabbage plant. On a large stalk 
which grows up out of the head, are long-stemmed leaves with sharp, hard- 
pointed ends. The soft sides of the leaf can be removed and the stem 
stretched out to four or five feet, so elastic is it. After allowing this to dry 
in the sun, it forms an eyeless needle already threaded. As fine a thread as 
is needed can be made, and it is as strong as wire. Ropes and heavy 
twine are made from the fiber that will be as strong as a steel-wire cable. 
This plant is found nowhere else on the face of the earth, so that Mexico 
and the United States have a monopoly of the trade. 

Neck Cloth. A folded cloth worn around the neck, as a band or cravat; 
an article of dress which replaced the ruff and falling band, and formed a 
marked feature in the fashionable dress of men in 1740 to 1775. Through- 
out the 17th century the ends were commonly of lace and fell over the 
breast. Later, and down to about 1820, the neck-cloth was plain and com- 
posed of fine white linen. 

Necktie. Properly a narrow band, generally of silk or satin, worn 
around the neck, and tied in a knot in front; by extension any band, scarf or 
tie worn around the neck or fastened in front of the collar. [See Cravat.] 

Needle. The date at which needles were invented and first used is 
lost in the darkness of prehistoric times. From Eve with her needle of thorn 
spikes to the toiling girl of the present the needle has ever been a symbol 
of the vocation of the weaker sex. The earliest needlework — Eve's tailor- 
ing with fig-leaves, the needlework of the Hebrew women, the coat of many 
colors worn by Joseph, and the benevolent industry of Dorcas — serve as so 
many evidences of the early use of this necessity of the household. The 
word occurs in the oldest books, both Hebrew and Sancrit, and needles 
have been found in caves, mounds and ancient tombs, which facts attest 
their prehistoric manufacture. The bronze ones found in the Egyptian 
pyramids are from 3 to Z%, inches long, but what their general size and 
quality were can only be a matter of conjecture, particularly those used by 
the Egyptian women in working upon fine linen, which, from the very 
nature of the work done, must have been of the most minute kind. In 



270 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. NEE 

Europe prior to the present century needles were luxuries, and not lightly 
esteemed. The first needles used in England were made of ivory or of 
metal. In the latter case the eye was formed by looping metal round at 
the head, so the thread would not slip off when tied. Although such a 
needle would not bear comparison with the beautiful little instrument with 
which we are so familiar as to view it, generally with the contempt which 
proverbially follows great intimacy, yet some good work was done with 
these clumsy tools. For long ages, from the days when the wife of Edward 
the Confessor was accounted "perfect mistress of the needle," and when 
all English ladies were so skilled in embroidery that anything worked with 
unusual skill received the name of English work, down to the 14th century, 
the rough old needles were made to play a good part in the production of 
exquisite needle-work, and did far more work than any of their more 
finished descendants. Until the year 1818 needles in all European coun- 
tries as well as in the United States were made by hand, by wire-drawers; 
and it is a pleasant fact to recall that to our own country the credit is due 
of the invention of needle-making by machinery. It is probable that there 
are but few among the hundreds of thousands who buy, sell and use needles 
who have any idea of the many and various processes the piece of steel 
goes through before it is ready for the seamstress. There are altogether 
twelve different processes through which the needle-wire goes before the 
perfect needle is produced. It is first received on large wooden spools 
from the wire-drawer, and cut into short lengths and placed in large quan- 
tities in regular piles; after which a heavy platform is lowered upon them 
and worked back and forth over the wires — rubbing them out straight, 
on the same principle that a bent pin is placed between the sole of the boot 
and the floor, and by a to-and-fro motion, rubbed out straight. The 
'pointing" comes next, being accomplished by placing the wires between a 
revolving pully and belt. As the pully revolves the wires are also rapidly 
turned, and coming in contact with a fine grindstone, the points are quickly 
ground down. After this comes the polishing and then the stamping 
machine, which flattens the steel around the eye, so that it is very thin. 
Then the "eyes" are punched through, and taken between the thumb and 
finger by the workmen and passed over a small grindstone, which removes 
the surplus steel from the outside edges of the eyes. The tempering of 
the steel is the next process, large shovels being used on which the needles 
are laid and held in the furnace until the proper temper is obtained. From 
here they are taken and thrown into buckets of oil which hardens and at 
the same time makes them elastic. Then follows brightening the needles, 
large quantities being placed in chamois skins, filled with oil and powdered 
emery. They are rolled up and securely tied, and a platform lowered upon 
the bundles moving them back and forth, rubbing the needles together and 
by means of the oil and emery, brightening them. To free them from oil 
they are placed in large pans of sawdust, and shaken until thoroughly 
dried. A little polishing over a buff wheel then finishes the needle with 



NEE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS, 271 

the exception of the inside of the eye. To do this a large number are 
threaded upon a small wire which is extremely hard and rough. The 
needles are revolved (on the wire) at a very high rate of speed, thoroughly 
brightening the inside of the eye and removing the roughness, which pre- 
vents the cutting of the thread. All needles marked "helix" have the eye 
finished in this way. Many cheap needles are not put through this last 
process. Girls next stick them into small pieces of cloth. 10 "papers" are 
tied into a "bunch," 25 needles to the paper, making a quarter of a 
thousand. They are sold at wholesale at so much per 1,000 needles. 
Originally needles were made of three distinct shapes: The first short and 
rather stubby with the point ground down which was rounding, and were 
called "ground-downs." These are still used to some extent by tailors. 
The next shape a little narrower and sharper at the point, are termed "be- 
tweens." "Sharps" are longer, slimmer, and more narrow-pointed. 
"Millinery" and "straw" needles are still longer in corresponding sizes 
than any of the above. One-half of the needles consumed in this country 
are made at Brooklyn, N. Y., the balance being imported from Redditch, 
England. 

Needle-loom. A form of loom used especially for ribbons and narrow 
fabrics, in which the weft is carried through the shed formed by the warp- 
threads by means of a reciprocating needle instead of a shuttle. The loop 
of the weft is locked at the selvage by the passage through it of an extra 
shuttle with its thread. 

Needle-threader. A device for passing a thread through the eye of a 
needle. One such device is a hollow cone with a perforated apex, which is 
adjusted to the eye of the needle, the thread being pushed through the 
cone. 

Net. An open textile fabric, of cotton, linen, hemp, silk, or other ma- 
terial, tied or woven with a mesh of any size. Netting is an art so ancient 
that no date can be fixed for its invention. That it was practiced for fish- 
ing and bird-catching by the earliest inhabiants of earth, there is not a 
doubt, as ancient scriptural metaphors plainly illustrate the practice of 
using nets for snaring. The nets for such purposes are represented on 
Egyptian and Babylonian monuments, and are shown there to have in no- 
wise differed from modern nets: There is still to be seen in the Museum 
at Berlin, Germany, some Egyptian nets, and the implements by which 
they were made, that are 3,000 years old. Netting is formed by the inter- 
secting of threads which wind around each other and are knotted, forming 
a mesh. Netting was made by hand until 1809, in which year the machine 
for making bobbinet was invented. The term net is also applied to light, 
open-woven fabrics, such as gauze and muslin; worn or used as a protec- 
tion from annoying insects. [See Bobbinet, Lace.] 

Netlier-stocking. The lower part of the hose or leg-covering, as dis- 
tinguished from the trunk-hose or thigh-covering of the olden time; the 
stocking as distinguished from the breeches. 



272 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. NET 

Netting-machine. A bobbinet loom. A machine by means of which 
the action of the hands is imitated, and a fabric is produced secured by 
knots at the intersection of the warp and weft threads. Fish-netting as 
well as lace-netting was formerly made by hand. Most of the nets now 
used for fishing purposes are woven on a net-loom invented by Geo. Patter- 
son, of Scotland, in 1820. In principle it is the same as the bobbinet-loom. 
[See Bobbinet.] 

Nettle-cloth. A thick cotton cloth which, when japanned, is used 
instead of leather for waist-belts and vizors for caps. [See Japanning.] 

New Orleans Cotton. A grade grown on the banks of the Mississippi 
and Red rivers. It is clean, soft and glossy in appearance; rather short in 
staple but even and strong, and easily incorporated with other cottons of 
a long staple. It is exported in very large quantities to the British and 
French markets. 

New Market. A style of ladies' winter cloaks, imported from England 
about 1880, at which time it superseded a style known as the dolman. 
New Market was formerly the name of a long close-fitting overcoat worn by 
men when riding or driving, which derived its name from New Market, 
England, a town famous the world over for its horses and its horse racing. 
The form of the New Market garment for ladies has not departed far 
from the original, it still being a tight-fitting cloak made usually of heavy 
cloth the skirt reaching quite to the ground. 

Sight-gown. A night-dress for women, high in the neck, with long 
sleeves, covering the whole person. A night shirt is a similar garment 
for men. 

Noil. The short lengths and knots of wool taken from the long staple 
in the process of combing. The noils thus accumulated are used either to 
make felt, or are put into cloth to increase its thickness. It is the function 
of the combing machine now in use to separate the top, or long fiber, from 
the noil, or short and broken wool. Noil-yarn is also a term applied to an 
inferior quality of yarn spun from the combings of waste silk or wool. 

Nom-de-drap (nom ' -de-drah). [A French phrase for cloth in name.] 
A term applied to silk dress fabric made of pure silk-worm-silk, with 
only enough admixture in the dye to carry the color; silk of the most 
durable kind. [See Silk, Adulteration of Fabrics.] 

Normal. A descriptive term used with reference to knit underwear, 
having application to both color and quality. Normal means natural, or 
according to a rule or established custom. "Normal mixture" underwear 
signifies that the goods are part cotton and part wool, and composed of 
yarns half gray and half black. 

Nottingham Lace. See Lace Curtains. 

Nubia. [From Latin nicbes, a cloud.] A knitted or crocheted scarf of 
soft, fleecy material, worn about the head and neck. 



NUN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 273 

Nun's Cotton. A general designation applied to all fine white em- 
broidery-cotton, from its use in embroidery on linen by Catholic nuns in 
convents. It is marked on the labels with a cross — the symbol of Catho- 
cism — and is sometimes called cross-cotton. [See Marking Cotton.] 

Nun's Yelling 1 . A variety of wide untwilled woolen dress fabric, very 
soft, fine and thin; formerly used by nuns for veils, when it was more trans- 
parent; but now used exclusively for ladies' summer dresses, dyed black, 
white and in colors. 

Nursery Cloth. Fine bleached muslin, diapered linen, nankeen or 
other fabrics used in the manufacture of baby-cloths for infants. 

Nutria Fur. The fur of an animal of the genus rodent, somewhat 
resembling both the musk-rat and the beaver. It is smaller than the latter, 
but larger than the former. It inhabits the banks of the rivers in Buenos 
Ayres and Chili, being a kind of water rat. Nutria skins are dressed and 
dyed as a substitute for seal-skin, and the fur is used in the manufacture of 
hats as a substitute for beaver, which of late years has grown scarce. [See 
Furs, Hats and Caps.] 



O 

Obi Cloth. A kind of Japanese silk, embroidered with gay colors, with 
fanciful designs, used for hangings and coverings. 

Oil-cloth. The body of floor oil-cloth is composed of burlaps, which 
is made of jute. By far the larger quantity of burlaps consumed in this 
country is imported from Dundee, Scotland. This coarse cloth is woven 
soft and limp, and the first operation in the manufacture of floor oil-cloth 
is to stiffen or " size " the cloth. This is done bypassing it through a hot 
mixture of starch and glue, and then over heated rollers, coming out, it 
might be said, laundried. It is then ready for the paint-machine, where it 
is given the "body." This paint is composed of raw oil, turpentine, ochre 
and umber. There are four qualities of oilcloth, depending on the number 
of body coats of paint; that which is to be the best quality receives six coats ; 
the poorer grades a less number. The cloth is in pieces twenty-five yards 
long, by from one to two and a half wide. The thickness of each coat is 
governed by a steel knife, in manipulating which a workman becomes so 
proficient that he can tell nearly to the pound what a piece of oil-cloth will 
weigh when the coating process is completed. Three men at a paint ma- 
chine can turn out in a day 100 pieces containing 50 square yards each — 
5,000 square yards. The operation of coating the best quality of oil-cloth 
occupies a week; as each coat requires twenty-four hours to dry. In drying 
the long pieces, they are not laid on a flat surface, but are suspended from 
the ends. After the last painting, which is applied to both sides alike, the 
pieces are sent to the rubbing machine, where cylinder surfaces coated 

J8 



274 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. OIL 

with glue and sand pass rapidly over the side which is to have the pat- 
tern printed on it, ridding it of all roughness and irregularities. The best 
quality is afterward given an extra coat of paint, when they are ready for 
the printers. The printing is the most interesting part of the operation. 
For every color in the operation there must be a corresponding-shaped 
wooden block. These blocks all come from the state of Maine, and are 
about two inches thick and about two feet square, composed of several 
pieces of wood. The top layer is of maple, crossed and recrossed by nar- 
row grooves which form a surface of small squares, 144 of them to the 
square inch. These little squares look like, and are in reality, so many 
square pegs. Where the pattern is desired to show, the pegs are left stand- 
ing; those on the parts of the surface not to be printed being cut away. 
Some patterns containing many colors require from twenty-five to thirty 
blocks, each with different portions of the pattern cut out of the surface, 
and consequently requiring also twenty-five or thirty different impressions 
to reproduce the design. The styles of patterns change twice a year. Some 
are designed in Utica, and others come from Philadelphia and New York. 
Oil-cloth is open to the objection that it has a cold, hard, uncomfortable sur- 
face, while it is almost as noisy to the tread as ordinary wood flooring. 
Many substances have been proposed to supplant it, in which these objec- 
tionable features have been overcome. Of these bodies linoleum and 
kamptulicon have been the most successful. 

Oil Red. See Turkey-Red. 

Oiled Silk. Thin silk saturated with boiled oil, semi-transparent and 
waterproof. It is much used in tailoring and dressmaking to prevent per- 
spiration from passing through, as at the armpits of garments and the lin- 
ing of men's hats and ladies' bonnets. 

Oil Skin. Heavy cotton or linen cloth impregnated with a preparation 
of oil to make it waterproof. It is the material of which oil-skin coats or 
"slickers" are made. 

Open Account. A course of business dealing still continued between 
two parties. An account of which up to date there has been no statement 
made; an account not stated. Also termed an account current, and for- 
merly abbreviated °jc a sign now almost exclusively used for account. 
A stated accoimt is an account or statement showing the result of a course 
of transactions for adjustment or settlement between two parties. 

Organdie. A fine variety of white goods, woven plain, cross-barred, 
striped and printed with figures. The stripes are damasked, showing 
lustrous in contrast with the ground. The word is derived from organzine, 
the most brilliant and lustrous variety of silk yarn. 

Organzine (or-gan-zene'). A silk thread for the warp in weaving, 
made of several singles twisted together. In preparing organzine the 
silk after being wound off from the cocoons into hanks, is placed on a 
winding-wheel, which in turn reels off the hanks onto wooden reels. These 



OSN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 275 

are then placed on spindles, and the fibers of each are made to pass 
through a minute hole and small hollow brush, which together clean the 
thread and remove any knots or projections from it, throwing it at the same 
time into hanks again. [See Silk.] Then the threads of two hanks are taken 
and again reeled off, this time into one hank, being twisted together to the 
left as one thread; then this thread is doubled and twisted tightly to the 
right, forming a single thread with four strands. These operations, con- 
sisting of winding, cleaning, twisting and doubling, constitute organzine 
silk. It is the strongest, most lustrous and the highest priced silk yarn 
used in any kind of weaving, being used principally for the warps of silk 
fabrics, and in the manufacture of poplins, velvet, plush and sewing 
thread. Silk yarn used for the wefts of fabrics is called tram. [See Tram.] 

Osnaburg. A term used in the United States to describe a coarse, 
plain-woven cotton fabric, manufactured principally in the South; in 
color both plain, unbleached, and in fancy stripes and plaids, used largely 
by the negroes for dresses and shirts. The word is derived from Osnaburg, 
the name of a district in England in the county of Hanover, where the 
first heavy cotton cloth was woven. 

Ostrich feathers. The fine feathers of the ostrich, long known and 
used as ornaments. The bird is a native of Africa, but is now partially 
domesticated also in Southern California. Our supply comes mainly from 
Tripoli, in the vicinity of which city are many farms wholly devoted to the 
rearing of the birds for their feathers. At the plucking season the birds 
are collected from distant parts of the farm and driven into the plucking- 
kraal, where they are so closely crowded together that even the most savage 
bird has not room to make himself disagreeable. The outlet of the pluck- 
ing-kraal is through the plucking-box, into which, one by one, the birds are 
driven to be denuded of their plumes. This box holds the bird so tightly 
that he cannot kick or turn round. A few rapid snips from the shears of 
the two operators, one standing on either side of the box, soon divest the 
bird of his magnificent white feathers. They are cut before the quills are 
quite "ripe," or ready to fall out, so that the tips may be perfect and not 
draggled or destroyed. The feathers on the upper part, extremities, back, 
wings, and tail of the ostrich are the most valuable, the long white feathers 
on the wing fetching the highest price, either dyed or in their natural color. 
The wing feathers are chiefly employed for head-dresses. The male birds 
are the black ones with white feathers in the wing and tail; the female is 
drab. The feathers on both are equally valuable, as they are mostly dyed 
before being put on the market. The only feathers sold with their natural 
colors are the white and the black-and-white found on the male. There 
are no long black plumes on the birds ; these being made by dyeing the white 
ones. Good ostrich "plumes" sell for $8 to $10 a piece and even more for 
some fancy grades. All of the ostrich plumes of commerce are really 
double plumes, made by uniting two of the natural feathers. The stems 



276 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. OST 

are pared down and the two are sewed together, back to back. The heavy- 
double plumes are then dyed in any and all colors — appropriate and out- 
landish, even yellow, lilac and green — to suit the taste of the feminine 
public. It is safe to predict that ostrich feathers will always remain in 
fashion. They are now and always have been used to a very large extent 
as part of dress of the upper classes in all European countries. The three 
white ostrich plumes have formed the well-known badge of the princes of 
Wales for the last 500 years. Ostrich feather dealing has become a recog- 
nized and established trade in the London and New York markets, the 
imports coming from Tripoli, Magadar, Aleppo, Alexandria and the Cape 
of Good Hope, while California also contributes to the supply. 

A full-grown ostrich weighs about 300 pounds, and when stretching its 
neck stands over 8 feet from the ground. They are first plucked at the age 
of 6 to 8 months, and again 6 to 9 months later, and at every succeeding 9 
months. The chicken feathers, that is, the first plucking— known as spa- 
donas," are of little value, usually only about $8 to $15 per bird. The second 
plucking, at the age of from 18 to 15 months, is of more value, from $25 to 
$40 per bird, and from 6 to 9 months later the third plucking is ready. 
The bird has now matured and really fine feathers are grown, and from 
this and all succeeding pluckings are realized from $75 to $150. In each 
wing over the protector or floss feathers, there grow to maturity in 8 
months 26 long white plumes. In the black male these are pure white, but 
the female adds slight shadings of ecru or gray. The sweep of short 
feathers above the splendid fan of white is plucked for tips, and each wing 
furnishes 75 of these. The tail feathers are toned into a deep old ivory, and 
65 of these are of commercial use. The length of time between each 
plucking, the weight of the feathers, and the richness of their plumage 
depends partly upon what care is taken not to extract feathers too early, 
but more especially upon the quality of the pasturage. If an ostrich has 
always a plentiful supply of food the feathers will grow and ripen quicker, 
and may be plucked every 7 months. [See Feathers.] 

Ottoman. [From Otto?nan empire, Turkish empire, a word applied to 
anything regarded as distinctly Turkish in character.] A fine, soft undressed 
silk dress fabric, woven in large cords, extending from selvage to selvage. 
The weave is similar to that of faille and marseilles, except that it is more 
pronounced. Ottoman Stripes are dress fabrics, of cotton or of wool, in 
which the usually narrow stripes are made lustrous by being woven in a fine 
twill (damasked), which in contrast with the ground are visible by the 
opposite reflections of light. 

Outing Flannel. A soft, loose-woven flannellette, woven of cotton and 

finished with a slight nap. [See Flannellette.] 

Overalls. Loose trousers made of duck or denim, made to wear over 
others to protect them from being soiled. The quality of overalls is denoted 
by the weight of the material of which they are made, expressed in ounces. 



OVE COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 277 

Overcoat. A coat worn by men over the other dress, a top coat; a 
great coat; opera coat; New Market; ulster. Overcoating is the material 
from which overcoats are made. 

Overshoe. A term signifying any sort of an outer water-proof shoe; 
specifically, an outside shoe lined with flannel, fur, or other warm material. 
[See Rubber Shoes.] 

Oxford Shirting. See Shirting. 



Padding. In calico-printing, the process of applying to the fabric a 
mordant, which when dried, is next printed with a design, the result that, 
after the cloth has been dyed in the bath and cleared, white patterns appear 
upon a ground of uniform color. These white patterns or spaces may be 
afterward printed upon in steam or pigment colors. Calicoes produced in 
this way are said to be in the padding style. The so-called padding styles 
in calico printing are, in reality, a modification of the madder styles or 
alzarin dyed colors, and, although not used so largely as formerly, are still 
employed in print works to a certain extent. 

Paduasoy (pad'-u-a-soi). A smooth, strong, rich silk originally manu- 
factured at Padua, Italy; in vogue during the last century for ladies' dresses 
and gentlemen's coats; also a lady's garment made of this material. 

Pajamas (pa-ja'-maz). Loose drawers or trousers, usually of silk or 
silk and cotton, tied round the waist with a cord, used by both sexes in 
India, and adopted from the Mohammedans by Europeans as a sleeping 
garment. In this country the term is extended to include also a loose coat 
or blouse used as a sleeping or lounging garment. 

Palempore (pal ' -em-pore). A flowered chintz bed-cover, of a kind 
formerly made at many places in India, but now extensively in Europe 
and the United States. 

Paletot (pal'-e-to). [A term derived directly from French paletot, an 
overcoat, but further traceable to Latin palla, a long upper garment, and 
toque, a cap.] A loose, light-weight outer garment, with sleeves, cape and 
hanging hood, for men or women. 

Pallium. A symbol of office worn by bishops and archbishops of the 
Catholic church. It consists of a white woolen band, about two inches 
wide, and long enough to be worn around the shoulders and be crossed in 
front. It is always made at Rome from the wool of two lambs which the 
sisterhood of Santa Agnese offer every year on the occasion of the feast of 
their patronal saint. The pallium has crosses worked upon the white wool 
in black, and ornaments are attached to the ends. It is sent by the pope to 
every newly-appointed archbishop, the origin of its use dating back to the 
year 336 A. D. 



278 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PAN 

Pantalets. Long frilled drawers reaching to the ankles worn by 
women and girls. 

Pantella. A stocking of recent introduction, designed to dispense 
with the use of garters and provide a complete covering for the legs, the 
tops being knit sufficiently long to reach to the waist, and fasten to the 
corset. They are finished at the top with satin ends on the outside, into 
which button holes are worked, and are made rights and lefts. [See 
Equestrienne Tights.] 

Pantaloons. A term derived from Pantalone, a ridiculous character 
in Italian comedy, and a buffoon in pantomine, who first wore "breeches" 
and "stockings" that were all of one piece. This character took his name 
from Pantaleon, the patron saint of Venice, and hence is a personal name 
very frequent among the Italians, and sometimes applied to each other as a 
nickname. The fashion of wearing pantaloons came into general popular- 
ity with the French Revolution when puffed breeches and tights, lace and 
gewgaws subsided and made way for the comparatively simple dress which 
characterized that period. Although pantaloons at this time only came to 
the middle of the calf of the leg, where they were met by half top-boots, 
they soon afterward extended in length to rest upon the foot. [See 
Hose, Trousers.] 

Paper. A material consisting of a compacted web or felting of vege- 
table fibers, commonly in the form of a thin flexible sheet. The fibers most 
used for writing-papers are those of linen and cotton rags, and for printing- 
papers those of straw, wood, waste-paper and selected grasses. These 
fibers are prepared by grinding, bleaching and boiling until they are re- 
duced to a fluid pulp, in which state they readily mat and felt together 
when freed from the water with which they have been saturated. More 
than 400 fibers usable for this purpose are known. Paper was formerly 
made wholly by hand. Some fine grades of writing-paper are still made by 
hand, but the larger portion of the paper, for whatever use, is now made by 
machinery. The production of paper is perhaps more closely regulated by 
the law of supply and demand than any other manufactured product. In the 
earlier days of paper-making there was little demand for it, as then it was ne- 
cessary either to write books by hand, or to print them from hand-engraved 
plates. The invention of the printing-press created the first demand for 
paper which caused its manufacture to become a profitable industry. The 
hand method of paper-making was only discontinued upon the invention 
of the cylinder printing.press. This invention gave such an impetus to the 
distributing of printed matter that hand paper-makers were unable to sup- 
ply the demand; hence anew order of things was inaugurated and ma- 
chinery for the making of paper was perfected with great rapidity. Inven- 
tive ingenuity of the highest order is constantly at work to discover new 
uses for paper, such as building materials, domes for churches, boats, ves- 
sels, barrels, car wheels, railroad ties, pails, tubs, etc., in all of which iight- 
ness is combined with strength. 



PAP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 279 

Wood forms the basis of all news and common paper. Almost any 
kind can be used, but spruce is regarded by manufacturers as the most 
serviceable in the long run. Other kinds which may be used to a greater 
or less degree, are white pine, Norway pine, white fir, birch, cypress, tama- 
rack, poplar, sweet gum and hemlock. The best shape for the wood is in 
logs 4 to 10 inches in diameter, free from knots and used as soon after fell- 
ing as possible. A great deal depends on the quality of the wood. If the 
wood is poor and lacking in fiber, then the paper made from it will be weak 
and lacking in toughness. The wood which can be used for paper-making 
costs all the way from $7.50 to $10 a cord in the East, and as low as $3.50 a 
cord in the West. In Michigan the lowest prices of all prevail. 

There are three ways of making paper : First by mixing wood pulp 
with rags; second, by mixing wood pulp with the so-called "sulphite wood- 
pulp," or sulphite; third by using sulphite alone. The first process is rap- 
idly becoming obsolete, having been superseded in the last decade by the 
sulphite process, which is, in the main, the ordinary method. The third 
process is something of an experiment, and the resulting paper is apt to be 
too transparent. The groundwork of the first two processes is wood-pulp. 
This is made in the following manner : After the logs have been freed 
from all knots and bark they are cut in blocks. Then the blocks are placed 
in the pulping machine. This consists of a big grindstone, 4 or 5 feet in 
diameter, with a 12-inch fall. The prepared blocks are fastened down 
against the surface of the swiftly revolving stone by automatic screws, 
which keep the wood constantly in contact with it. A heavy stream of 
water forces the resulting pulp over screens which catch all slivers, chips 
and other impurities. The pulverized pulp is then run over a cylinder and 
forced out on a wet piece of felt, where it is dried for convenience in hand- 
ling. The remaining water is then pressed out. All paper manufacturers 
do not make their own wood-pulp, but buy it. It costs them from Y% of a 
cent a pound upward, according to the quality of wood used. The dried 
wood-pulp is put up in paper bundles for shipment to the paper manufac- 
turers. This wood, to make paper, must be mixed with the sulphite pulp 
— so called because the wood is chemically reduced by means of sulphurous 
acid. ' * 

The method of making the sulphite is very interesting, and is quite 
recent. Up to a few years ago it was difficult, because there were no good 
boilers in which to prepare the pulp. This has been obviated, and now 
sulphite has almost entirely taken the place of rags in the manufacture of 
paper. Black or white spruce is the wood generally used for making sul- 
phite. It is not ground after the manner of wood-pulp, but is prepared in 
machines called chippers. In these, the wood is cut up into even chips ji 
to y & of an inch long, y 2 to Y% of an inch wide, Y% to % of an inch thick 
Then these chips are put into a digester and boiled from 12 to 18 hours, 
under a pressure of 75 to 80 pounds. Plenty of water is added, and the 
whole mixture is treated with sulphurous acid and a little chloride of lime. 



280 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PAP 

Thorough boiling reduces it to a pulp. This is washed and bleached and 
is ready for the machinery. The pulp in a watery form is passed over a 
wire netting of fine mesh which is moving under rollers. Gradually the 
water is forced out, and by the time the pulp reaches the end of the long 
line of rollers under which it passes, it is dried and pressed out into flat 
sheets. After this it is cut into sheets, baled, and is ready for shipment to 
the proper factory. 

Sulphite looks like ordinary cardboard. It is very tough and of light 
color. It varies in quality, costing all the way from two and a half to five 
cents a pound. Sulphite has many good qualities in the eyes of the manu- 
facturer. It is cheap compared to rags, for which it is substituted. It is 
clean, has great strength and toughness and makes hard stock. It is easily 
bleached and comes in a form easy for shipment and storage. Although 
sulphite is a recent invention $7,000,000 is now invested in its manufacture 
and 7,500 tons turned out monthly. 

After the wood pulp and the sulphite is made, the paper-making proper 
comes in. The wood pulp and the sulphite are mixed in a proportion of 
one part sulphite to four of wood pulp. After a thorough mixing the two 
are soaked and beaten together in a machine for the purpose. When linen 
or cotton rags are used they are thoroughly soaked and cleaned, and boiled in 
a mass in the same manner. The resulting mass of pulpy material in either 
case is moistened until it assumes a thin, watery aspect. Then it is passed 
through a machine on a moving wire net which is constantly shaken so that 
all the moisture percolates out. Then the fibers gradually lock together 
and are passed under hot rollers, all the time on netting, until the material 
reaches the end of the machine, when it comes out in a long roll of paper. 
While the paper is passing through the rollers the watermark is put in if 
any is to be used. It is done by means of a roller called a " dandy." This 
roller is made of fine wire, and whatever markings and letters are to be put 
in the paper, are worked in the wire. Then, while the paper is still soft and 
wet, it receives the impress of the whole, which makes the markings a tri- 
fle thinner than the rest of the paper and hence more transparent and vis- 
ible. Laid paper, so called from the dim, narrow lines warer-marked in it, 
is made with a dandy-roller in the same way. Paper which has no water- 
is called plain wove. After the paper is water-marked, if it is of good 
quality it is calendered, after the manner of calendering cotton cloth. This 
process gives it a smooth finish, varying with the number of times it is put 
through the series of polished rollers, which are the essential parts of the 
calendering machine. The rollers are very heavy and highly burnished. 
The roll of paper is passed through them under pressure and comes out 
with a smooth, shining surface. This process can be repeated any number 
of times, and each time the paper receives a higher polish. After this the 
paper is ready to be cut, which is done by machines with knives that can 
be set to any width. The paper is then ready for counting and making 
into quires and reams and bundles. This is all done by hand. The ordi- 



PAP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 281 

nary counts of paper are the quire of twenty-four sheets, the ream of twenty 
quires, (two of which are always inferior to the other eighteen) and the bun- 
dle of two reams. Newspaper is not often calendered, but is used as it 
comes out of the hot rollers of the drying machine. The rolls are long and 
very heavy, often measuring a mile in length and weighing as high as 1,200 
pounds. The industry is one of the largest in the country. New England 
is largely given over to the industry, which, however, flourishes in many 
Western states as well, one requisite being clear soft water. There are 
1,180 mills in the United States, with a capacity for producing 15,000,000 
tons of paper annually. Of this enormous product, 4,000,000 tons are 
used in printing books and newspapers and 3,500,000 for wrapping paper. 
The most rigid economy is practiced in paper making, hence the high de- 
gree of mechanical skill and executive ability connected with this industry, 
as compared with the cost of the product. Large mills making over fifty 
tons of "news" every twenty-four hours, often contract to supply their en- 
tire product to a single large newspaper publishing house, at a price as low 
sometimes as three cents per pound. In 1891, a paper mill and a Philadel- 
phia newspaper resolved to ascertain how quickly a tree could be converted 
into newspapers, and an experiment resulted as follows: Chopping one and 
a half cords of poplar wood, stripping and loading on boat, three hours ; 
time consumed in manufacturing wood pulp, twelve hours; manufacturing 
the wood pulp into paper, five hours; transporting to printing office, one 
hour and twenty minutes; wetting paper preparatory to printing, thirty 
minutes; printing 10,000 newswapers, ten minutes. Total time from tree 
to paper, twenty-two hours. 

There are certain standard dimensions of paper, the rolls being com- 
mercially cut to those sizes. Printing and writing paper of the same names 
ars sometimes of different sizes, according to the purpose for which they 
are intended. The sizes mostly used have names and measurements, in 
inches, as specified in the following table: 

Atlas, writing _ ...26 x 33 

Check Folio, writing ..17 x 24 

Columbier, writing ...23 x 33J4 

Crown, writing. 15 x 19 

Demy, writing 16 x 21 

Double Cap, writing 17 x 28 

Double elephant 26 x 40 

Double medium, printing ... 24 x 38 

Double royal, printing 26 x 40 

Double super royal, printing 29 x 43 

Elephant, writing ..-22& x 27 VS 

Extra size folio, writing 19 x 23 

Elat cap, writing. 14 x 17 

Folio post, writing 17 x 22 

Fool's cap, writing 12V4 x 16 

Imperial, printing 22 x 32 

Imperial, writing 22 x 30 

Medium-and-half, printing 24 x 30 



282 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PAP 

Medium, printing.. 19 x 24 

Medium, writing -- ...18 x 23 

Royal, printing 20 x 25 

Eoyal, writing 19 x 24 

Small cap, writing ...13 x 16 

Small double medium, printing.. 24 x 36 

Super royal, printing 22 x 28 

Super royal, writing 20 x 28 

Paper Collars. A collar for men, made of paper, cut to fit the neck, 
and covered with thin muslin, by pasting. Since the introduction of cellu- 
loid the paper collar has rapidly declined in popularity, At present the 
annual product amounts to 1,500,000 per year. Twenty years ago paper 
collars were universally worn, their very cheapness inducing extravagance 
in their use, and the industry was a large and flourishing one. Fortunes 
were made by many manufacturers, but there is not. one made now to 
where in 1875 there were a hundred. Paper cuffs have likewise fallen a 
prey to man's indifference. 

Paper Linge, [French paper lineup An imitation of linen damask, 
made of linen paper. The French manufacture this novelty so cleverly 
that it is almost impossible to detect the difference between it and damask. 
Even to the touch, imitations made of paper linge are very much like linen. 
They are used for many purposes for which damask articles are applicable. 

Papier-mache (pa'-pa-ma-sha'). A substance composed principally 
of paper (to which other substances may be added to impart special quali- 
ties), usually prepared by pulping a mass of paper to a doughy consistency, 
which can be molded into any desired form. Ornaments, picture-frames, 
jars, boxes and the like, are made from it. 

Paramatta Cloth. A twilled dress fabric made in imitation of bomba- 
zine, the weft of which is worsted and the warp cotton. It is usually em- 
ployed for purposes of mourning. When first introduced the cloth was 
composed of silk warp and worsted weft. It was invented at Bradford, 
England, where it soon became a prominent manufacture, but the name it 
bears was derived from a town in New South Wales, on account, in all 
probability, of the wool of which it was composed being imported thence. 

Parasol. [From parry, guard, and Sol, the sun.] A light umbrella, or 
sun-shade, carried by women. According to historical records the parasol 
with a movable canopy was first used, as a mark of dignity, by the Romans. 
It came afterwards to be naturally devoted to the practical purpose for 
which it is used at the present day. Similarly, the employment of richer 
fabrics and the occasional addition of elaborate embroidery or lace, com- 
pose the few changes which, in our day, fashion has been able to make 
in its character. 

Partnership. The relation existing between persons who combine 
their services, property and credit for the purpose of conducting business 
for their joint benefit. The written contract of partnership is not, a"s to 



PAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 283 

outside persons dealing with the firm, conclusive evidence of the partner- 
ship ot the firm. Even if other persons who do not appear in the articles 
of partnership can be shown by verbal testimony to be actually members 
of the firm, their liability is that of partners the same as if they were in- 
cluded in the written articles. According to law, a partner is not entitled 
unless by special agreement, to any special compensation for his skill, 
labor or services while employed in the partnership business. He owes 
these gratuitously for the success and accomplishment of the partnership 
operations. A managing partner who employs his minor children, with 
the consent of the other partner or partners, is entitled to compensation for 
their services. Where an attempt is made, after a dissolution of partner- 
ship, to charge with liability a person who has retired from the firm, on the 
ground that the person or jobber selling goods has never been notified of 
the dissolution, the evidence of the remaining partner that he has changed 
his bill and letter heads from the old style to the new style of the firm, and 
has received checks in payment signed to the new firm name, is sufficient 
evidence that the transaction was bona fide. A limited partnership is one 
in which a partner contributes to the common stock a specific sum in cash, 
and is liable for the debts of the partnership only to the amount of his 
investment. This privilege usually carries with it the understanding that 
the limited or special partner shall take no part in the conduct of the busi- 
ness. A general partnership is one in which the relation is not qualified as 
limited or special, and in which, therefore, all the members are jointly liable 
for all the debts. Dormant or silent partners are persons who are inter- 
ested in a business, and share its profits and losses, but who are not known 
to the public as connected with it. If they are discovered, however, they 
are equally liable as if their names had appeared in the firm. Capitalists 
frequently advance money to persons of limited means and become dor- 
mant partners in the business, taking a share of the profits instead of inter- 
est on the money advanced, and appearing as creditors in case of loss or 
failure of active partner. This is illegal and exposes them to be mulcted 
for all the liabilities of the firm beyond the assets, as well as losing the 
capital invested, no matter what agreement is drawn up to the contrary. 
The capitalist who invests money in this manner must rely on the integrity 
and capacity of the active partner, for the latter virtually has him in his 
power. A married woman is as free to enter into a business partnership with 
her husband as with any one else. If she does so, and the firm incurs liabili- 
ties, she has all the responsibility of a partner, and is liable to the creditors 
for the debts of the firm, even if it consumes the one-third usually allowed 
out of the husband's assets, in case of his failure. 

Passe (pas-sa'). Past; out of use or style; faded. 

Passementerie (pas-men '-tri). A term applied to heavy embroidery 
or lace edgings and trimmings, especially those made of gimp and braid, 
or covered with beads and silk. [See Gimp.] Jet passementerie is the 



284 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PAS 

variety in which beads or beaded work forms the pattern; plain passemen- 
terie is made without beading, and either of silk, cotton or wool. 

Passement (pas'-ment). A decorative edging or trimming, especially 
a gimp or braid, wrought in complex and fanciful patterns. This sort of 
embroidery was first made as a trimming for garments in the 17th century. 
In those ancient days it was an expensive material wrought with small 
beads and discs of gold, and worked with colored silk thread, laid in small 
round rolls alternately beside the gold, so as to lend a tinge of green, 
crimson, pink or blue to the tissue. 

Pearl Buttons. See Buttons, Appendix "A." 

Pearl. In lace and ribbon-making one of the loops which from the 
outer edge. [See Purl, Picot.] 

Pea-jacket. A heavy short coat, generally of pilot-cloth, worn in cold 
or stormy weather. 

Peau de soie (po'-de-soa). [From French peau, leather, and soie, 
silk— signifying a silk with a fine, even grain or leather-like surface.] A 
silk dress fabric, woven like ordinary gross-grain, but with a rib so fine and 
close as to produce a face very similar to a plain-woven fabric. The best 
grades of peau de soie are finished on both sides exactly alike, but the 
cheaper qualities are single-faced. The peau de soie so much in vogue in 
recent years is but the "paduasoy" in which Martha Washington and her 
compeers of colonial days delighted to adorn themselves. The weave is 
the same, though the title has been slightly altered. [See Paduasoy.] 

Pebble. To finish leather so as to cause the grain to become prom- 
inent, and to present a roughened or ribbed appearance. The imparting 
of a pattern in more costly leather (as goat) is strictly a variety of graining, 
though technically termed pebbling. The artificially roughened or in- 
dented surface on the grain side of the leather is produced by working it 
upon that side with a roller having a pattern of the desired design cut into 
its surface. The term is properly restricted to the act of producing an ir- 
regular pattern, such as would be produced by pressing irregularly dis- 
tributed minute pebbles upon the leather, whence the name. A pattern 
consisting of straight lines is called a straight-grained pebble. The term 
graining includes pebbling, which is but a special kind of graining, of 
which glassing or glazing is still another variety. 

PeMn. A trimming fabric, made in alternate stipes of satin and vel- 
vet, which vary in width from one-half to two inches. Pekin silk goods are 
dyed black and a variety of colors, and are much used in the trimming 
of ladies' garments. Pekin gauze is a variety in which gauze is substituted 
for satin stripes. 

Pelisse (pe-lece'). [From French pelisse, a skin of fur.] A garment, 
according to its name, that should be fashioned out of prepared skins, on 
which the hair has been preserved; a fur coat. In this country it is a long 



PEN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 285 

cloak of silk or other materials, either with or without fur, worn by women. 
The French from whom the term is imported, consider a lining, or at least 
trimmings, of fur as a necessary constituent of the pelisse; but in this coun- 
try pelisses are often made even without any trimming whatever. The 
ecclesiastical surplice is connected with this garment. Monks formerly 
having to attend early services at all times of the year in cold churches 
were permitted to wear "pellicas", coats of skin. A synod in the year 
1200 held in London restricted the monks to the use of lamb and fox skins, 
with a view of preventing a spread of luxury in dress. The pelisses of 
these light skins in time beeame worn and unsightly and were then covered 
with a linen tunic during divine service. These were styled super-pelice, 
which by an easy transition became surplice. 

Penang. A cotton fabric similar to percale, except that it is heavier. 
It owes its name to the Island of Penang, whence it was formerly exported 
in large quantities from England. 

Percale. [A French term signifying cambric muslin, or cotton cambric, 
as distinguished from linen cambric] A kind of cambric very closely 
and firmly woven, with a round thread, and containing more dressing than 
ordinary muslin, but without the glossy finish of cambric; it is printed in 
fancy patterns on white and colored grounds. Percale was introduced into 
the United States in 1865. [See Mill-raye, Shirting.] 

Petticoat. A skirt; formerly the skirt of a woman's dress or robe, 
frequently worn over a hoop or "crinoline;" now, an underskirt worn by 
women and children. Although the petticoat has been relegated to an 
inferior position among feminine wearing apparel, it nevertheless is being 
year by year composed of superior materials. At present it is made of silk 
of the rustling sort, a fashion which fifty years ago would have impressed 
the average feminine mind as wantonly extravagant. However, the recent 
innovation bids fair to become a permanent and popular style, and much 
might be said in its favor. Silk is an agreeable and healthy material. 
Used in dress it retains the electricity of the body; its hues reflects the 
sun-beams, giving them a quicker brilliancy, and it heightens colors with a 
charming light. It possesses an element of cheerfulness of which the dull 
surfaces of wool and cotton are destitute. It also promotes cleanliness, will 
not readily gather dirt, and does not harbor vermin as kindly as wool does. 

Picking. The final operation in finishing woven fabrics, by going over 
the surface and removing burrs and blemishes by hand, or retouching the 
color with dye by means of a camel's hair brush. 

Picot (pe'-ko). [French picot, from pic, a purl or point.] A small 
loop forming part of an ornamental edging, but larger than the purl and 
thicker, consisting of a thread upon which other thread has been wound, 
or to which small stitches or knots have been added. When the term is used 
to designate ribbons it has the same meaning as applied to purl in lace- 
making — signifying small attached loops or circles. 



286 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PIE 

Piece-dyed. Dyed in the piece; said of cloth dyed after weaving as 
distinguished from that made of yarn dyed before weaving. 

Piece-goods. All kinds of cotton, linen, silk or wool fabrics which are 
woven in lengths suitable for retail sale by the usual linear measure; ascalt- 
coes, shirtings, sheetings, dress goods, long cloths, etc. 

Pigment Color. In dyeing, a color prepared in the form of a powder, 
and insoluble in the liquid by which it is applied to the fabric. Pigments 
are distinguished from other dyes and washes by their entire insolubility 
in the media in which they are mixed: whereas dye-stuffs are tinctorial 
substances applied in solution. 

Pile. [From Latin pilus, hair.] Nap of a regular and closely set 
kind, consisting of threads standing close together, and shaved smooth, so 
as to form a uniform and even surface. In dry goods parlance the term is 
generally confined to the surface-covering of fabrics which is woven in 
loops and afterward either left standing thus or sheared down to a cer- 
tain height, as in velvet, plush and various kinds of carpets. [See Nap.] 

Pile Weaving. A process of weaving in which a third thread is intro- 
duced, and formed into loops by weaving it over wires laid across the en- 
tire breadth of the cloth. The wires are then drawn out leaving the loops 
standing, or the loops may be cut so as to form a cut pile, as in velvet and 
plush. The pile wire is used only in pile-weaving. In the manufacture 
of cut-pile fabrics grooved pile-wires are used, laid with the grooves facing 
the tops of the loops. In cutting the pile-threads, the knife slides edge 
upward through the groove or channel of the wire, thus making the cutting 
uniform, without danger of injuring the warp or weft. [See Velvet]. 

Pillow. A soft cushion filled with down, feathers, curled hair, or 
other yielding material, used to support the head during repose. Feathers 
are almost universally used in northern countries in the manufacture of 
pillows, but in warm climates the heat which they generate is found to be 
uncomfortable. In India, China and Japan, pillows are made of pigskin 
sheepskin and goatskin. The ends are of wood, cut almost square, with 
the sides slightly hollowed out, making the pillow case concave. The ends 
are joined together and permanently held in place by three or more small 
bamboo sticks or slates. The skin is drawn over this frame, fastened at 
both ends, and is then carefully dried. It is then colored, ornamented and 
varnished. The pillows vary in size from 3x3x12 to 6x6x18 inches. After 
they have been used several times, they are very easy and comfortable. As 
they are hollow, the air-chamber keeps them much cooler than are pillows 
made of feathers, down or straw. They have another peculiarity. The 
high tension of the skin converts them into sounding boards and enables a 
person lying upon one to hear sounds otherwise inaudible. A skin-pillow 
of high tension and fine quality of skin will enable the ordinary person to 
hear the ticking of a watch 5 feet away, and to understand a conversation 
carried on in whispers 18 feet away. 



PIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 287 

Pillow-lace. See Lace. 

Pilot-cloth. A woolen cloth, slightly heavier than ordinary Kersey, 
and with a shorter and closer nap, but otherwise having the same organi- 
zation as Kersey cloth. It is chiefly carried in stock by tailors for the mak- 
ing of overcoats and is usually dyed indigo-blue in color. The fabric re- 
ceived its name in the palmy days of Mississippi river steamboating. It 
was customary for the pilots of boats, as well as other officers, to be uni- 
formed, and the regulation cloth adopted was a medium heavy stuff similar 
to Kersey, or the old-fashioned beaver minus the nap on the wrong side. 

Pin. A small piece of wire, generally brass and tinned, pointed at one 
end and with a rounded head at the other, used as a fastener. There is no 
article used in the whole catalogue of dress which is of greater antiquity 
than the pin. It has been in use since the day that man and woman first 
felt the desire to shield their bodies from the gaze of the curious. First as 
the natural thorn it came into being, and the thorn seems to have given the 
pin its shape, when later they were made of iron and brass. As in the case 
of needles, pins are found to have been in use by nearly every nation and 
savage tribe on the globe. The date of their introduction into Europe is 
not known with certainty. All pins, in whatever country made, prior to 
1824 was of the form spoken of now as the "pin with the old German head." 
The era of the solid headed pin dates from 1824. The old pin has been 
aptly described as a shank with a separate head of fine wire twisted around 
it. This head, variously known as a "spun head," or a "wound head," 
would sometimes fit on tightly and then again loosely. So apt was it to 
come entirely away from tne shank that the mothers of the last century and 
the early part of the present, frequently warned their children "not to 
scratch the ear with the head of a pin," fearing that it would come loose 
and cause deafness. For hundreds of years the nations of Europe used 
this rough, loose-headed pin, they being highly prized as articles of luxury 
among the ladies. A curious fact in the early history of pins was the pas- 
sage of an act by the English parliament in the 14th century allowing the 
pin-maker to sell his pins in "open shop " only on the 1st and 2d of January 
of each year. This was intended to prevent the sale of these "luxuries " to 
too great an extent, as they were then regarded. It was on these two days 
of the year that the court ladies and city dames of high and low degree 
flocked to the shops to buy them, having first been provided with money 
by their husbands called "pin money." When pins became cheap and 
common, the ladies spent their allowances on other fancies, but the term 
"pin money" still remained in vogue. The invention of making solid- 
headed wire pins by machinery is generally attributed to Lemuel Wellman 
Wright, of New Hampshire, in the year 1824. Before that time they were 
imported, and sold at $1 a package. Now, a better pin is made at 3 cents a 
package. Then handwork had to be employed; now everything is made 
by machinery. Wright's first machine did very little more than make solid 



288 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PIN 

heads to the pins by a process in principle like that of nail-making, that is, 
by driving a portion of the pin itself into a countersunk hole. The 
machine failed in the hands of the patentee, and it was not fairly utilized 
until some years after his death. Since then successive improvements have 
been made in the mode of manufacture, and the processes have been 
greatly simplified. The beautiful automatic machinery by which pins are 
made at present, and the no less intricate machines by which they are 
stuck into papers, are wonderful when compared with former methods of 
manufacture. In a pin-making machine, as now used, wire of suitable size 
running off of a reel, is drawn in and straightened by passing between 
studs set in a table. When a pin length has entered it is caught by lateral 
jaws beyond which enough of the wire projects to form the head. Against 
this a steel punch advances and flattens the wire by a die arrangement into 
the form of a head. The pin-length is immediately cut off and dropped 
into a slit just wide enough to admit the body of the pin passing through, 
but retaining the head. The pins, thus suspended in rows by the heads, are 
carried to a sliding frame with a dozen grooves, in each of which a pin is 
deposited as it passes under the slit. In this position the pins are pointed 
by being held against a revolving file-cut roller. A dozen are thus arranged 
in a row with their points all in one direction. The sheet of paper to re- 
ceive the pins is passed through a grooving machine, which creases it into 
ridges, through which a row of a dozen pins is driven at every thrust for- 
ward of the carrying frame. This process can be repeated with great 
rapidity and the pins stuck as fast as they are made. 

In England, particularly during the early days of their manufacture, 
pins were known in trade as "corkings," or "corking pins," the word "cork" 
being yet used in England and Scotland to designate a bristle, beard, or 
metal sliver. In those days pins were made of two kinds: white (brass), 
and dark natural-colored iron, the former then, as they are now, being the 
most expensive. They were then made in three different sizes, viz: Big 
corkings, middle corkings and short corkings. The letters in present use 
indicating the size of brass pins are derived from this ancient designation. 
The sizes of brass pins, from large to small, are as follows: 

BC (Big Corkings) YVA (Fine, No. m Wire) 

MC (Middle Corkings) BB (Very Small) 

SC (Short Corkings) SW (Short Whites) 

Brass pins which are put up full count, that is 400 pins per paper, are 
termed Ne plus ultra (the utmost point, perfection). Brass pins are also 
put up in papers of 275 pins and sold at a lower price, but these are never 
branded Ne plus ultra. Adamantine ' pins are put up in papers of 240 to 
280, and are numbered from 2 large to 5 small. 

Pina-cloth (pe'-nya). A thin and translucent fabric made of the fiber 
of the pineapple-plant. This cloth is chiefly made at Manila, and in its 
manufacture resembles horsehair cloth, because the threads of both warp 



PIN COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 289 

and weft are each single unspun fibers. Also called pineapple-cloth and 
pine-cloth. 

Pinafore. A child's apron. 

Pineapple cloth. A sort of fine fabric made of the filaments of the 
leaves of the pineapple plant. The leaves are gathered by the natives just 
before the ripening of the fruit, and the prickly edges being cut off, the 
leaves are beaten upon a wooden block with a mallet until a silky looking 
mass of fiber is obtained; which after being washed and dried is ready for 
spinning. The yarn so prepared is woven by the natives into fine shawls, 
scarfs, handkerchiefs, etc. The texture is soft and delicate, and the color 
generally a pale yellow. 

Pique (pe-ka'). {French. pique, quilting). A washable cotton material, so 
woven as to have a small pattern in relief, usually a cord or rib, in imita- 
tion of qtdlting, extending lengthwise of the fabric. Pique is frequently 
printed with small delicate patterns, though more often plain white; usually 
rather stiff and thick and used for children's clothing, waistcoats and 
summer dresses. 

Plaid. A pattern in textile fabrics consisting of bars or stripes of 
color crossing each other at right angles. The terra, plaid is also applied 
to a loose garment, often having a tartan pattern. It is a large rectangular 
piece of woolen stuff, and is worn in Scotland by both sexes for warmth 
and for protection against the weather. It is a special dress of the High- 
landers, and forms part of the uniform of certain infantry regiments of the 
British army. [See Tartan, Kilt.] 

Plastron (plas'-tron). A garment or part of a garment covering the 
breast. 

Plush. / A term derived from French peluch, which in turn is derived 

from Latin pilus, hair, from the fact that when plush was first manufactured 

it was made with a worsted foundation and a pile of goat's hair or mohair. 

The use and manufacture of plush in Europe dates from the sixteenth 

century, though it is highly probable that a fabric similar in appearance 

has been woven in China from time immemorial. Plush may be roughly 

described as long napped velvet, and any kind of fiber may be used in its 

manufacture, the distinction from velvet being found in the longer and 

less dense pile upon the surface of plush, j The process employed in 

weaving it will be found fully explained in the article on Weavinc. The 

silk plush now so extensively used for dress and millinery purposes is 

made on a cotton foundation, the ground-warp being frequently dyed of 

the same color as the silk pile-warp. Silk plush having a longer and a 

less dense pile than velvet, the pile admits of being brushed from side to 

side much easier, thus reflecting the rays of light to a better advantage, 

and producing a watered or changeable effect. One form of plush is that 

which has taken the place of the napped beaver-felt in the dress-hats of 
19 



290 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. PLU 

gentlemen, which is consequently known as hatter s plush. This variety- 
is all produced in Lyons, France, not a single yard being made in the 
United States. Indeed there are no plushes composed entirely of silk 
manufactured in this country, although cotton-back and mohair plushes 
are produced in fairly good qualities ; in some instances being equal if not 
superior to the goods of Europe. This is especially true of the furniture 
plushes woven in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and the exquisite seal 
plushes, woven in wide widths for winter cloaks and caps. The railroads 
of the United States consume about 40,000 yards of the best mohair plush 
for car seats every year, which large quantity up to the present time has 
been almost entirely supplied by our home mills. "Crimped and embossed 
plush for furniture coverings are being produced in large quantities since 
the passage of the McKinley tariff act, which has greatly aided in the re- 
cent developement this industry. Plush is embossed by means of large 
steel rollers, on the surface of which a pattern is cut in relief. They are 
heated, and revolve slowly while the dampened material is drawn under- 
neath; thus the pile is stamped flat in places, leaving some erect to form 
the pattern. Much mohair plush in England is woven by hand, an expert 
weaver producing about forty yards per month. A power loom will average 
about fourteen yards per week. Very frequently plushes are made to imi- 
tate the skins of animals. Every one is aware that a great many animals 
have next to the skin a short close fur, covered with a longer hair, the hair 
lying over the fur and serving to turn off the wet, while the fur serves to 
keep the animal warm. In imitating such furs two lengths of pile must be 
furnished the plush. In fact, two distinct plushes are combined upon one 
ground— one having a float an inch or more in length, and the other having 
a float of only a quarter of an inch. In case two different materials be 
used, such as fine wool for the short, and silk or bright mohair for the long 
pile, beautiful effects are obtained, and very correct imitations of the skins 
of some animals made. In making imitation sealskin, smoothness and 
brightness of the fiber are the essential conditions. If the pile is required 
to stand erect upon the surface of the cloth, unless it is very short pile, 
the hair or fiber of which it is made must be very strong, so that it can re- 
tain its erect position. In the manufacture of silk plush the pile is made 
of organzine silk; in mohair of the best angora hair. [See Utrecht Vel- 
vet, Pile Weaving, Velvet, Weaving, Mohair, Angora.] 

Ply. A fold; a thickness. A term often used to designate the num- 
ber of strands of which yarn is made. 

P. M. An abbreviation of "premium money." The letters are used 
to mark goods which have become shop-worn or are slow sale, indicating 
that the salesman will be paid a premium for disposing of them, usually a 
certain per cent. 

Polo-cap. A variety finished without peak or roll, usually made of 
silk, low, flat-crowned and soft. Men's traveling caps are made polo style. 



POL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 291 

Polonaise (po-lo-naz'). A light, open gown looped up at the sides, 
showing the front of an elaborate petticoat, and longer behind, worn to- 
ward the close of the last century, also a similar but plainer gown, not so 
much drawn back, and draped more simply worn at the present time. 

Pompadour. A design used in the manufacture of silk fabrics, con- 
sisting of small delicate leaves and flowers, with pink and blue colors in- 
termingling and frequently brightened with bright yellow or gold. Pompa- 
dour parasol is a form in fashion about 1860, having a folding handle and 
generally covered with moire antique or other heavy silk. Pompadour 
or Cronstadt veiling is a variety having a large mesh with occasional large 
dots or patches fastened to its surface. 

Ponceau (pon-so'). [From Latin puniceus, red.] Poppy-corn color — 
a flame color. In dyeing, the name for various coal-tar colors of different 
shades of red. 

Poncho (pon'-cho). A kind of covering worn by the Spanish Amer- 
icans, having the form of a blanket, with a slit in the middle for the head 
to pass through. Also a name given to a rubber blanket used by soldiers 
and campers, to either throw over them at night, or to cover their laps 
while riding or driving; made with a slit in the center through which the 
lines may be passed. 

Pongee silk. Properly, a thin, soft, washable, silk fabric, woven from 
the natural, uncolored raw silk, without further manipulation after it leaves 
the cocoon than to boil it "out of the gum." Formerly our entire supply 
of this silk was imported from China and Japan, where it was woven on 
the primitive hand looms. At present it is largely produced in the United 
States. There is also a fabric called pongee, which consists of a silk warp 
and a woolen weft, usually dyed in shades of silver-gray and wood-brown, 
of a soft texture and glossy appearance. The word is said to be a cor- 
ruption of Chinese pun ki, "own loom," or pun chi, "own weaving," as if 
home-made; according to other authorities the word pongee is derived 
from pon chi, "native silk." However, the heathen Chinee is tricky, and 
all silks woven in China at the present time are stamped with one or other of 
these phrases. Native pongee silk resembles the Tusar silk of India, woven 
principally in the province of Shantung, from the cocoons of a wild silk 
worm which feeds on the leaves of the scrub oak. The finest kinds, bleach- 
ed, dyed or figured, after importation are known in the trade as China silks. 

Poplin. In the 15th century a fabric was woven at Avignon, France, 
(which at that time was a papal diocese) and called papaline, in compli- 
ment to the reigning pope. This fabric was made of silk and much es- 
teemed, vast quantities being manufactured to supply the gorgeous church 
vestments and hangings then in use. An imitation of this material was 
introduced into England, made with a wool weft, and the name corrupted 
to poplin. In 1775 the manufacture was introduced into Ireland, by the 
French Protestant refugees, and from that time to the present, Irish poplin 



292 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. POP 

has been famous. The best modern poplins consist of a warp of silk and 
a filling somewhat heavier than the warp, which gives the surface an 
appearance somewhat resembling rep. The genuine Irish poplin, made at 
Dublin, is a lightweight variety, and is sometimes called single poplin. It 
is invariably manufactured from the best organzine silk, which is used to 
form the warp or longitudinal threads of the cloth, and from yarn spun 
from wool of the very best quality, which constitute the weft or body of the 
material. It is celebrated for its uniformly fine quality, much resembling 
whole-silk goods in appearance, but superior to them in durability, and 
produced at less cost. Cotton and linen are substituted, wholly or partial- 
ly in making cheap goods, but they are very inferior in beauty to the true 
poplins. They are watered, brocaded or plain. Double poplin is a variety 
in which both the silk warp and the wool weft are very heavy, the heavy 
woolen weft making the corded appearance very prominent. It is stiffer 
and heavier than single poplin. Terry poplin is another very durable 
variety which is woven by throwing up to the surface alternate threads of 
the silk warp, an appearance somewhat resembling Terry velvet being 
obtained. / 

Portiere (por-tier'). [French for door-curtain.] A heavy curtain or 
drapery hung at a doorway, or entrance to a room, to intercept the view or 
currents of air, and also for mere decoration. Portieres are usually com- 
posed of chenille or velour, and are attached to a pole placed horizonally 
over the archway, and fitted with sliding rings. 

Prayer rug. A rug or small carpet intended to be spread on the floor 
of a mosque or on the ground by a Moslem when engaged in his devotions. 
He stands on it with his face turned towards Mecca, and prostrates him- 
self, touching the carpet with his forehead from time to time. In many of the 
prayer rugs of Persia and Arabia the place to receive the forehead in prostra- 
tion is indicated in the pattern at one end of the carpet. They are among 
the finest rugs imported to this country. 

Princess. A term in dressmaking which denotes the form and style 
of a long gown for women, made in one continuous piece without drapery, 
and fitting closely. Demi-princess is a gown of which a part only, as the 
back, is of one piece from top to bottom. 

Print. A contraction of "printed calicoes." [See Calico.] 

Prnnella. A kind of lasting of which clergymen's gowns were once 
made, but now only used for the uppers of women's cloth shoes. The name 
is supposed to have been derived from its former color, that of prunelle, 
French for plum. 

Purple. The high estimation in which the color called purple has 
been held, dates back to a very remote period. The word is exceedingly 
common in the Scriptures, appearing there sometimes to signify a material of 
the name, and again as cloth of winch the texture was lost sight of in the 
value of the color. Tradition ascribes the discovery of the purple dye to 



PUR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 293 

a dog, which biting the Perpura mollusk, from which the dye is derived, 
had its mouth stained with the color. The discovery is said to have been 
made, and the manufacture carried on, at Tyre, the ancient city of 
Phoenicia, or Canaan, lying between northern Palestine and Syria on the 
Mediterranean. It is certain that the best purple dye was obtained from 
these mollusks, but it is almost equally as certain that the name of Tyrian 
Purple was given to more fabrics than could possible have been made or dyed 
at Tyre, or even dyed elsewhere from the purple secretions of the Purpura 
shell fish. In the time of Augustus, the price of dyeing a pound of wool 
with genuine Tyrian purple was $160; and. in Nero's reign to wear this 
costly color without his authority was punished with death; a restrictive law 
which probably indicates that the particular sOrt of it known as Tyrian 
purple, may from its very great cost, have been confined to the exclusive 
use of the wealthy. So much confusion exists in the statements concerning 
these "fine" and "ordinary" purples that not a few have considered the 
whole matter of the Purpura shell-fish dye a sort of myth; not that there is 
no truth in the shell-fish producing a dye — that cannot be gainsaid — but 
that the many wonderful stories told about it in ancient times were used as 
a blind to cover and conceal the knowledge of cochineal and a tin mordant, 
which it is maintained the Tyrians possessed. When we consider the 
simple mode of fishing practiced at that time and the small intensity of 
the color, which required three pounds of the liquor to one pound of wool, 
we should say they could not have had a large trade; since according to 
modern researches into this dye, one single Purpura mollusk produces 
only about one drop of the liquor, then it would take 10,000 fish to dye one 
pound of wool. By whatever means the dye was produced, the purple of 
ancient times was the most beautiful, brilliant and dazzling of all colors in 
the world, and for ages has been the symbol of imperial power and majesty. 
Modern research has revived the process of producing purple from shell- 
fish dyes, after the art had been lost several centuries; but to no purpose, 
for cheaper and finer methods had by that time been discovered. Purples 
are now produced from coal-tar. The ancient term "purple," however, has 
not always been used to designate the bluish-red or reddish-blue with 
which we associate the word, but frequently included distinct crimsons. 



Quaker Color. The color of the drab or gray fabrics much worn by a 
religious sect known as the Quakers; an olive-gray to dove color. Among 
the Quakers the color is regarded as the symbol of purity. 

Quality Binding', A kind of wide worsted tape, used for binding the 
borders of carpets and similar work. 

Quarter Blanket. A horse-blanket intended to cover only the back 
and a part of the hips. It is usually put on under the harness, 



294 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. QUE 

Queenstitch. A simple pattern in embroidery, made by a square of 
four stitches drawn within another larger one, made in the same way. A 
checkered pattern is produced by a series of these. 

Quilling'. A narrow bordering of net, lace or ribbon, pleated, crimped 
or fluted so as to resemble a row of goosequills laid in successive ridges; 
ruffling. 

Quilt. A coverlet or counterpane. The Honeycomb quilt, as its name 
implies, is a cloth with the figures on its surface formed by raised ridges, 
both warp and weft way. It is generally woven of bleached knitting-cotton, 
two or three double. Grecian quilts are also woven of bleached knitting- 
cotton, and yet the coarse threads give a smooth, glossy surface in conse- 
quence of the weave, being on the damask principle. Alhambra quilts 
are woven of vari-colored cotton yarns, usually in flower designs. [See 
Marseilles, Counterpane, Coverlet.] 

Quilting. A cover or lining made by stitching together two thick- 
nesses of a fabric (usually silk or satin), with cotton wadding between 
them. Usually one yard in width and used for cloak lining and the making 
of small coverlets. The fabric known as pique is sometimes called French 
quilting. 



R 

Radsimir (rad'-si-mer). [From French ras de St. Maur, cloth of St. 
Maur.] A rich description of dress silk, in the weaving of which a 
marseilles or cut cashmere effect is produced by dropping a thread of 
weft at regular intervals, generally from one-sixteenth to one-quarter of an 
inch apart. This produces a sunken line from side to side of the web, 
alike on back and face. Between the sunken lines the weave is fine and 
close, like peau de soi. 

Rag-wool. See Shoddy, Adulteration of Fabrics. 

Raiment. A contraction of arrayment. That in which a person is 
clad, or arrayed; clothing; vesture; dress; garb; costume; habiliments; at- 
tire; array; garments. 

Ramie. A fiber-producing plant native to China, Japan and the Malay 
islands, but can be, and is, grown in any moderate climate, especially in 
the Southern United States and as far north as New Jersey and Kentucky, 
as demonstrated by recent experiments. It has long been cultivated in the 
East Indies to supply fiber for fish-nets and cloths, and in China and Japan 
fabrics of great beauty are made from this material. Ramie fiber partakes 
somewhat of the nature of flax or hemp. The inner fiber is unsurpassed in 
strength, and in fineness it rivals flax, and possesses a silky luster shared 
only by jute. The plant is cultivated after the manner of hops, about 3,000 
being set out to the acre. The roots take a ready hold in soil of a rich or 



RAM COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 295 

damp nature, which in all cases must be deep, as the fine roots descend, to 
reach moisture, sometimes as far as 10 or 12 feet. The plants are put in 
the ground in April and with proper cultivation yield two crops the first 
year. Four crops can be gathered after the first year. The stalks when 
ready for cutting are from 6 to 8 feet high, and as large as a man's little 
finger. When ready to harvest, the stalks turn yellow around the base, and 
if then cut new sprouts immediately spring up, being in this respect similar 
to alfalfa. One of the objections which Southern planters have raised to 
the cultivation of ramie is the fact that the process of removing the fiber 
necessitates an expensive machine, or else the shipment of the stalks as soon 
they are cut to some point where such a machine is in operation, and as the 
freight on the waste of the stalk is 90 per cent., it eats up a considerable 
portion of the profit. In Europe ramie fiber is used for a great variety of 
textile fabrics, and it is said that 50,000,000 pounds of ramie are annually 
shipped to France and England from China, at an average price of $18 per 
ton. It is also spun in larger quantities in Saxony, at Baden, which city 
claims the credit of being the cradle of the ramie industry. The successful 
spinning of the fiber requires machinery as delicate as for silk, the great 
difficulty being that while nearly as fine as silk, ramie is too strong and 
when it becomes entangled in the machinery, is the last to break. 

It is a well-known fact among silk-buyers that in many of the foreign 
silks imported to this country that ramie is used as a mixture. The fact 
was not discovered for a long time, but little doubt now exists as to its 
reality. The material is being used in the manner indicated to a much 
larger extent than is generally supposed. The appearance of the union 
goods thus formed deceives even experts, so great have been the advances 
made in connection with the preparation in spinning, weaving and dyeing 
the ramie fiber, which takes color very well, and presents an elegant ap- 
pearance when properly finished. It is generally admitted that ramie can 
be employed for many of the purposes to which silk is now put, and if 
there is to be any competition at all by ramie cloth, it will be with silk. 
That is what it most resembles. It does not, however, impart so much 
warmth as the latter, but is exceedingly strong, stronger indeed, as has 
already been noted, than silk itself. Its rich and glossy appearance, com- 
bined with its valuable coloring properties, appear to have attracted 
greater attention in France and Germany than in this country, though all 
through the South experiments under the direction of the Department of 
Agriculture are still proceeding with a view to improving the processes 
employed in preparing the fiber. In different countries the plant is known 
under different names : The Malays call it ramie ; in China it is known as 
China grass and silk grass; the French know it as cambric, while the 
botanical name for it is rhea. 

Ratteen. [From Ger. ratee, honey comb.] A cheap coarse woolen 
cloth resembling frieze in outward appearance; it is chiefly employed for 
coat and overcoat linings. A thinner quality is called rattinet. 



296 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. REB 

Rebozo (re-bo '-tho). A narrow shawl or long scarf, worn by Mexican 
and Spanish American women, covering the head and shoulders, and 
sometimes part of the face; a kind of mantilla (which see). 

Recherche, (re-sher'-sa). Exceedingly fine; out of the common; rare; 
dainty; hifalutin. 

Redingote. A double breasted outside coat with long plain skirts, not 
cut away at the point; also similar garment for women, worn either as a 
wrap or as a part of a house dress, frequently cut away at the front. 

Reed. That part of a loom used to separate the threads of the warp 
and for beating the weft threads up in the web. It if made of parellel slips 
of metal or reed, which resembles in their closeness the teeth of a comb. 
They are fixed at their ends into two pieces of wood, set a few inches apart. 
The term reed also signifies a flexible metal stay used by ladies for distend- 
ing their dress skirts behind. These come in a set of three, each of a 
different length. 

Reefer. A heavy garment for men; originally a close-fitting jacket or 
short coat made of strong coarse cloth for use by sailors and fishermen, but 
copied for general use in flannel fabrics by the fashions of 1889-90. It is 
similar to a blazer, except that it is a heavier garment, being especially 
suitable for spring wear, while the blazer form is better adapted for summer 
weather. 

Reel. The process of winding silk round an appropriate frame, in 
order to make a skein of it. Wool, cotton and spun-silk are each first 
carded and spun and then reeled, but reel silk is wound directly from the 
cocoons. [See Filature.] 

Regular. A term as applied to dry goods having two distinct mean- 
ings: Regular goods are those varieties upon which the retailer is allowed 
a certain discount from the invoice price at stipulated times, usually 6 per 
cent, discount at the expiration of 10 days from date of invoice, 5 off 30, 
and 2 off at the end of 60 days. Regular made knitted goods designates the 
best quality, in which the seams are connected by hand, and without the 
formation of a ridge or welt. [See Hosiery.] 

Remnant. A contraction of remanent, from Latin remanes, that which 
remains or is left behind. 

Rep. [Corrupted from rib.] A style of weaving in which the surface 
presents a transverse-ribbed appearance, by close, round twills or cords 
extending in a diagonal direction across the web. Furniture rep is a 
flowered cotton goods woven in this manner. Worsted rep is used for up- 
holstering and curtains, and is \]/ 2 yards wide, dyed in solid colors. Silk 
rep is used for ladies' dresses, ecclesiastical vestments, etc., and is narrow, 
usually 22 inches. The word is also applied to a thin worsted dress goods. 
In a general sense rep is used to describe any transversely-ribbed cloth, 
as distinct from "cords," which are of similar structure, but extending 
lengthwise of the fabric, 



REP COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 297 

Repellent. A general term for solid-colored, plain-woven, six-quarter- 
wide cloths used for making ladies' and children's wraps and winter 
dresses, ordinarily woven with cotton warp and wool weft, though occasion- 
ally made of pure wool; sometimes called waterproof. When first made, 
they were woven so thick and close as to repel rain and moisture, hence 
the name repellent or waterproof. 

Reseau [ra-zow ' ). A term designating the ground of lace when com- 
posed of regular uniform meshes, whether of one shape only, or of two or 
more shapes alternating; net or network. 

Retail. A word derived from French retailler, "to cut again" — from 
re, again and tailler, to cut; whence also comes our word "tailor." 

Reticule. [From French reticule; Latin, reticulus, a little net.] A bag, 
originally of net-work, but later of any formation of material, carried in the 
hand or upon the arm, and answering the purpose of a pocket. 

Ribbon. A strip of fine fabric, as silk, satin, or velvet, having two 
selvages. Ribbons in this sense were introduced into Europe in the 16th 
century Prior to this time they were not made separately, but were 
woven onto the bands or . borders of garments and were narrow 
like a rib, hence the origin of the word ribband, which was the old 
English and the present French term for our ribbon. During the early 
days of their manufacture they were frequently made of gilt, intermingled 
with threads of gold and silver. These were regarded as articles of lux- 
ury, and in order to suppress the tendency of the public in this direction 
the English parliament passed an act forbidding their use by tradesmen, 
artificers and yeomen, reserving the right to wear them to the nobility. In 
the 17th century, silk ribbons were worn in great profusion, and it was then 
that they acquired that hold upon public favor which has lasted to the 
present day, the fashion of wearing them and their general structure in all 
that time indulging in but few fluctuations. History relates that in the 
years between 1650 and 1700 ribbons were worn in the greatest profusion 
by the men of Europe. Every portion of their attire was trimmed with 
them. Evelyn, an authority on the costumes of his time, in describing the 
dress of a fop of the period, says: "It was a fine silken thing which I es- 
pied walking 'th other day through Westminster Hall, that had as much 
ribbon about him as would have plundered six shops and set up twenty 
country pedlars. All his body was drest like a May pole. A frigate newly 
rigg'd, kept not half such a clatter and flutter in a storm as this puppet's 
streamers did when the wind was in his shrouds; the motion was wonder- 
ful to behold, and the well chosen colors were red, orange and blue, of 
well grain'd satin, which argued a happy fancy." 

The terms blue ribbon and red ribbon, bestowed by county fairs and 
other competitive exhibitions as marks of excellence, originated in Eng- 
land, on account of a badge of blue ribbon being used to designate the 
Order of the Garter, which is the highest order of English Knighthood, 



298 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. RIB 

and the red ribbon badge designating the Order of Bath, the next highest 
in rank. [See Garter.] 

Ordinarily ribbons are made of widths varying from one-fourth of an 
inch to seven or eight inches, though sash ribbons are occasionally made of 
much greater widths. The different widths or numbers of ribbons were 
formerly denoted by the thickness of so many penny pieces. The old 
English penny was nearly the size of our silver dollar, and a ribbon the 
width of one of these pennies set up edgewise was called No. 1; a ribbon 
the width of two pennies set up edgewise was a No. 2; a ribbon as wide as 
seven of them was No. 7, and so on. Thus the custom of numbering origi- 
nated and is still retained. Ribbons all measure ten yards to the bolt and 
never exceed nine inches in width. The city of St. Etienne, in France, is 
the principal seat of ribbon manufacture in the world, (the ribbons being 
chiefly the product of 18,000 hand looms distributed among the homes of the 
weavers) though many are made at Basel, in Switzerland, Crefeld, 
Germany, at Coventry, England, and in the United States. The great 
local industry at St. Etienne is as important as all the rest combined, the 
value of the ribbons annually woven in that city amounting to $16,000,000, 
and the amount of pure silk consumed 12,000 pounds. France and Switzer- 
land make the best ribbons on account of using only hand looms, which 
preserves a perfect evenness of tension and disposition of the threads; the 
product of power looms is disposed to cockle or crimp in places. The 
principal seat of the ribbon industry in the United States is Patterson, 
New Jersey, where they are woven on looms made especially for the pur- 
pose, called ribbon looms, or needle looms. [See Loom.] The raw silk 
which enters into their construction comes in bales from Japan, Italy and 
France, and is worth from $5 to $5.25 per pound. The silk from Japan is 
mostly pure white, while that from Italy is a beautiful gold, resembling 
very much golden blonde hair. Before the silk is ready to be made into 
ribbons it has to go through the hands of throwsters, dyers and twisters. 
In the weaving of the finest ribbons the slightest difference in temperature, 
the breaking of a single silk thread as fine as a hair, spoils all. The great- 
est care has to be exercised to turn out perfect goods. In former years all 
our ribbons were imported but at present our home mills produce about 
one-half of the amount consumed. [See Velvet Ribbon, Picot, Silk, 
Moire, Weaving.] 

Rigby Cloth. A variety of waterproof cloth. The term Rigby 
applies more to the process than to the cloth, as any woolen cloth may be 
subjected to the Rigby system of waterproofing. Tweeds and worsteds 
are especially submitted to the Rigby chemical treatment, the result being 
that while they are made waterproof they at the same time remain suf- 
ficiently porous to admit the passage of a small amount of air through the 
fabric. [See Cravenette.] 



RIG COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 299 

Rigolette (rig-o-lef). A light wrap sometimes worn by women upon 
the head; a head-covering resembling a scarf rather than a hood, and usu- 
ally knitted or crocheted of wool. 

Robe de Chambre. A morning gown, or dressing gown. 

Rope. See Cordage. 

Rubbers. A general term used to designate both lined and unlined 
rubber footwear. Many people suppose that rubbers are made by melting 
the material and running it into molds. . Such is not the case. The manu- 
facture of rubber shoes is not very much different from the manufacture of 
leather shoes. They are made on lasts in the same manner, but instead of 
being sewed they are cemented. About seventy per cent of pure rubber is 
all that is contained in the manufactured article. The best Para gum costs 
ninety-five cents a pound on the wharf at New York. In the smallest pair 
of rubber shoes there are about two ounces of pure rubber, and from that, 
on up to probably four pounds in a pair of heavy rubber boots. Old rub- 
bers are ground up, lining and all, into what is called "rag carpet," which 
is used for insoles. The work is nearly all done by hand, the factories em- 
ploying men, women and children. A boot-maker gets twenty cents a pair 
for making boots, and a good workman can turn out from ten to twelve 
pairs a day. The raw material comes mainly from South America, and is 
of a spongy nature and an earthy color. First, the rubber is put into warm 
water in order to soften it and remove the dirt and other impurities. It is 
then put into a masticating machine which tears it into very small pieces. 
Still warm and somewhat adhesive in consequence, these small fragments 
are quickly spread out into a thick sheet, which travels between the rollers 
one inch apart; the rollers press the fragments together and they adhere 
slightly in the form of a thick blanket — two feet wide and six feet long. 
These sheets are next dried and passed between large hollow steel rollers 
heated with steam internally, which compress the material into soft, thin 
sheets. Then it is taken into the compounding room where it is mixed with 
a compound and vulcanized. The chemical materials (sulphur, etc.) being 
added, the sheets are folded up and kneaded well together. This knead- 
ing process is performed by passing it several times through the hot rollers, 
folding it after each, and rolling it into a dough-like mass. When this 
operation is completed, it is finally rolled out into thin sheets several yards 
in length, which are reeled off on cold rollers, so as to allow cooling. It is 
then ready to be cut into "uppers" for the cheapest kind of rubbers, which 
are unlined. The better grades are lined with cotton cloth of different 
colors, and sometimes with other materials, as felt. The lining is made 
fast to the rubber sheet by passing the piece of cloth through the rollers 
simultaneously with the rubber in the last process, a firm adhesion of the 
two being effected by the heat and moisture. Another machine is so con- 
structed that it produces a sheet thick enough for the soles, and on one sur- 
face a roughening is made by engraved lines crossing each other to prevent 



300 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. . RUB 

the soles from slipping in wet weather or on icy ground. Another ingen- 
ious pressure forms the heels. After the sheets for the uppers and heels 
have been cooled and reeled off, they pass through the cutting machines 
and are here cut in different sizes and shapes. Some cut out the inside lin. 
ing and the outside uppers for fronts and heel stepping, while others with 
great nicety cut the heeled-soles out. These various parts are now taken 
to the "makers," usually females, and the cast-iron "last" is rapidly cov- 
ered over with the different pieces, beginning with the insole and lining, 
the edges of which are cemented with a composition containing gutta- 
percha, which produces a firm adhesion. The sole is then fitted on with 
equal facility, and the workman then runs a wheel-tool round the edge and 
other parts to produce the representation of " seam " marks. They are 
next coated with a varnish which quickly hardens, and are transferred 
to vulcanizing ovens where they are submitted to a high degree of heat, 
which produces a chemical union between the rubber and other materials 
mixed with it at the beginning of the operations. When taken from the 
ovens they are removed to the packing-room, where they are boxed and 
shipped. There are twenty rubber boot and shoe factories in the United 
States, each with a capacity of 25,000 pairs per day, whose products are 
shipped to every civilized country on the globe. These factories make 
special shapes for different countries, those for China and Japan not being 
at all suitable for Turkey or Mexico. [See India-rubber.] 

Hudiing. A kind of ruffled or goffered quilling, used chiefly for ladies' 
neckwear; made of bobbinet, tulle, lace and chiffon. 

Ruff. [From Dutch ruyffel, to wrinkle or rumple.] A projecting band 
or frill, pleated or bristling, especially one worn around the neck. In the 
16th century, ruffs of muslin or lawn, often edged with lace, pleated and 
stiffly starched, were worn by both men and women. Indeed, among the 
first articles of adornment worn, upon which a profusion of lace was dis- 
played, was the ruff. Some of them were very broad, projecting six inches 
or more in all directions from the neck. In England about 1576 "he was 
held to be the greatest gallant or beau who had the deepest ruff and the 
largest rapier (sword). These articles of finery became at last sufficiently 
preposterous to attract the royal notice and caused Queen Elizabeth not 
only to make proclamation against both, but to "place selected grave citi- 
zens at every gate of the city to cut the ruffs and break the swords of all 
passengers, if the former exceeded a half-yard in depth, or the latter a full 
yard in length." The Queen's proclamation was issued in 1579, and 
ordered that "no person shall use or wear such excessive long clokes, being 
in common sight monstrous, as now of late are beginning to be used, and 
prior to two years past hath not been in use in this realme. Neither 
shoulde also any person use or weare such great and excessive ruffes, in or 
about the uppermost part of their neckes, as had not been used before two 
yeares past; but that all persons shoulde, in modest and seemly sort, leave 



RUG COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 301 

off such fonde, disguised and monstrous manner of attyring themselves, as 
both was unsupportable for charges, and indecent to be worne." Narrower 
ruffs of different descriptions and of various materials have formed a part 
of the costume of women at different periods down to the present day. The 
ruff at the present day is known as the ruck, or ruff band, or rucking, and 
sometimes incorrectly termed ruffle. 

Rug. A small pile-woven mat or carpet, in size ranging from one foot 
square to the dimensions of an ordinary setting room. The cheaper grades 
of rugs are made on power looms in this country, while the finer sorts are 
imported from Asia, being hand-made. There are certain districts in Persia 
where whole tribes are specially devoted to the weaving of rugs. In Turkey, 
Persia and Arabia the rug is the finest and most highly esteemed article of 
the household. It is a custom among them that young girls must weave a 
rug of unusual excellence before their marriage, the same forming a por- 
tion of their dowry. Formerly, the wool which went to compose these 
family heirlooms was dyed with pure vegetable dyes, generally in shades 
of dark rich blues. Each family in those countries have in their keeping, 
handed down through countless generations, some particular design or 
pattern of rug, which they prize highly for the memories associated with it, 
and zealously guard from injury. These, when they can be purchased by 
American or European buyers form the genuine Antiquerugs of commerce. 
The reason that they are finer, and consequently more desirable, is that 
they were not made for sale, but for the maker's own use, or for some prince 
or other high Oriental magnate. The wedding-bed is often a richly- 
wrought rug, laid over soft, sweet-smelling rushes upon the earthen floor of 
a tent, and many fine rugs are made as princely wedding gifts for the 
wealthy. For these reasons, time and price in their production cut no fig- 
ure in the making. While of a close and durable texture, impervious alike 
to air and water, the genuine Antique rugs are generally quite flexible, and 
the close, short surface of the pile is delightfully soft. Nothing can exceed 
the tender bloom which the colors of an Antique of prime quality 
display when mellowed by time. 

At present aniline dyes are used to a large extent by the Oriental rug- 
weavers, and while these are cheaper, they are not so beautiful or so durable 
as the vegetable-dyed specimens formerly made. The industry is a large 
one throughout Turkey and Persia, the rugs made for export usually being 
woven by the men. The rugmaker has no design or pattern to work from, 
but draws his inspiration solely from the instinct for certain types of the 
beautiful universal among the people. His techanical knowledge is 
acquired by seeing his father or his mother at the loom; families follow this 
pursuit from generation to generation. The loom stands on the porch of 
the flat-roofed adobe house, or under the giant shade trees. The frame is 
composed of rough, untrimmed limbs, on which the bark may still be seen. 
The warp, which is sometimes of wool or linen, though oftener of cotton 
cords, is stretched from top to bottom, and the weaver sits before it tailor- 



302 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. RUG 

fashion, resting on his knees and heels. The weft or woolen stuff of which 
the pile of the rug is made, is spun by the same individual who makes the 
rug, and they also dye the wool. The weaver lays the different colored 
thread in strands at his side. As he needs to use them, he cuts them into 
short tufts with scissors or with knife. These bi.s are twisted into the warp 
with his fingers, and thus form the woof or pile. When a row has been 
interwoven with the warp, a frame with teeth is hammered down upon it 
until it becomes an integral part of the layer below, and thus a consistent 
mass is formed with a rich even pile. When the length is finished it is 
fringed at the ends. The bulk of these so called Smyrna or Eastern rugs 
come to England and America. The seat of manufacture is in the remote 
parts of Asia Minor and Smyrna and Constantinople serves as the med- 
ium of transport only. The goods are shipped to this point by the native 
weavers, where they meet with English and American purchasers. Some 
of these rugs of the Orient have to come thousands of miles before they 
reach the Turkish capital. These caravans may have forded many danger- 
ous streams with their valuable burden. Roving bands of Arabian robbers 
may have attacked the caravan in the desert sands; hence it is not to be 
wondered at that many of the rugs are injured before they reach the final 
buyer in America. No machinery has yet been introduced in Asia for 
making either carpets or rugs, every tuft and knot being tied by the deft 
fingers of the Eastern weaver. In some of these rugs there is wonderful 
ability of construction shown. The knots are so fine in them that they are 
invisible to the naked eye, and cannot be discerned in searching for them. 
In all likelihood generations will yet elapse before the Oriental weavers will 
make rugs by machinery. The Eastern governments as well as the people 
themselves are obstinately conservative, and are fanatically opposed to 
changes of any kind. Recently the Turkish government has emphatically 
refused the request of wealthy citizens of Symrna to build factories for the 
manufacture of rugs, on the ground that it would be taking away the labor 
of the people. A genuine Oriental rug can be identified by simply learning 
to distinguish its characteristics. An eye that is once accustomed to recog- 
nize the peculiar Oriental character in a rug, and understand the mystic 
language it seems to speak can make no mistake, and is not likely to be 
imposed upon. The peculiar charm and characteristic of the Antique rug 
is its naturalness; the soft, yet deep colors; the strength of texture, and the 
charming irregularity of the design suggests the beauty of natural scenery, 
and are equally unmistakable and inimitable. To imitate successfully by 
artificial means the color and texture of Oriental rugs would cost more than 
to purchase the original, and, as to design, the most perfect machine-made 
imitation would at once reveal a very regular irregularity. 

Russet. A coarse woolen cloth, home spun and home woven, used 
for men's garments; a term generally derived from the redish-brown color 
of much cloth of this quality (probably colored with copperas), and retained 
when the color was different, as gray or ash-colored. 



kUS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 303 

Russet leather. Leather finished, but not polished or colored; except 
as colored by the tanning liquor. 

Russian Embroidery. Embroidering in simple and formal patterns, 
zig-zags, frets, etc., especially that which is applied to washable materials, 
as towels, etc. Such embroidery as originally practiced by the Russian 
peasants, including also the insertion of open-work patterns, and needle- 
work representations of animals, houses and the like. 



IS 

Sack. [A word found with little variation in all languages, generally 
regarded as being derived from ancient Hebrew sag, a bag for holding 
corn] A coarse-woven bag for holding grain, etc.; it is known among 
nearly all eastern nations as a sack. The wide diffusion of the word is 
probably due to the incident in the story of Joseph, in which the cup was 
hidden in a sack of corn (Genesis, xiii). Also a kind of jacket or short 
coat, cut round at the bottom, fitting the body more or less closely, and 
worn at the present day by both men and women; as a sealskin sack, a sack 
coat. Among our rude ancestors it was a kind of a cloak of a square form, 
worn over the shoulders and body, and fastened in front by a clasp or 
thorn. It was originally made of skin, afterwards of wool, but of whatever 
material always called a sack. When first introduced in France in 1665, 
for ladies' use, the garment was cut with a loose, sack-like back, not shaped 
into the waist, but hanging straight from the neckband. Sometimes spelled 
sacque. 

Sack-cloth. A penitential fabric. The ancients, more particularly 
the Hebrews and Assyrians during the period of great affliction, laid aside 
the garments best suited to their ease and comfort and put on sack cloth, 
which was woven of the coarse, short hair of animals, twisted together and 
used for both warp and weft; this coarse, prickly material was made into 
garments which fit close like a sack, without trimming or other adornment, 
and were worn solely to inflict personal discomfort in cases of grief or 
penance. [See Haircloth.] 

Safety pin. A pin bent back on itself, the bend forming a spring, and 
having the point fitting into a kind of sheath, so that it will not prick the 
wearer while in use, usually used for fastening infants' clothing. Safety 
pins range in size from 1, \%, 2, 2% up to 4, from small to large in the order 
named. Also called nursery pins. 

Salary. Literally and originally, money for salt, derived from Latin 
salarium, money given the Roman soldiers for salt. At present the term 
signifies a recompense for services; wages. 

Samite. A costly silk, frequently mentioned by old writers under the 
various titles of samittum, samitium, seyamitum, samilus, xamitum, or ex- 



304 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SAS 

ametum. The name denoted the substance of the fabric. Silks in mediae- 
val times had various names, distinguishing either their quality, or their 
pattern, or whence they came. Holosericum was a stuff made entirely of 
silk; subsericmn partly so. Exhamitum, or as old English documents so 
often call it, "samite," tells (from the Greek hex, 6) the number of threads 
composing the warp of the texture. Originally it was a heavy silk material, 
each thread of which was supposed to be twisted of six fibers. Later 
samite was applied to any rich, heavy silk material which had a satin-like 
gloss, and it is probable that before the term became obsolete it was used 
to signify satins generally. Sometimes during the 13th century, however, 
samite, having long been the epithet betokening all that was rich and good 
in silk, was forgotten, and other names and weaves usurped its place. 

Sash. [From Turk skash.] An article borrowed by the English cru- 
Baders from the turbans of Orientals, only being disposed about the waist 
instead of the head. Sashes were originally worn by army and navy offi- 
cers made of crimson satin, so that the other garments might make a more 
splendid appearance. 

Sateen. A twilled cotton fabric, used for ladies' dresses when printed 
with appropriate patterns, and for linings and underwear when dyed in 
solid colors. Sateen may be made a 3, 4, or 5 leaf twill, which when woven 
of fine yarn and properly calendered produces a sort of satin face. French 
sateen is "quarter satin," the warp passing over four wefts each time and 
under one, and so on in regular order. Satin itself is woven sixteen "harness," 
that is the warp passes over sixteen threads each time and under one, and 
so on. Amazon sateen is an extra heavy variety designed especially for 
women's riding habits. Sateen finished drill, is a fine all-linen fabric used 
for working table scarfs and fancy mats. 

Satine. Printed calico, finished with a high gloss or luster. [See 
Calender, Calico.] 

Satin. A silken fabric of high luster, used chiefly as a dress material, 
but also for innumerable minor purposes. When satin first appeared in 
trade it was called round the shores of the Mediterranean "a ceytuni." The 
term slipped through early Italian lips into "zetani"; coming westward this 
name, in its turn, dropped its "i" and smoothed itself into "satin." So, 
also, it is called in France; while in Italy it now goes by the name of "raso," 
denoting a smooth surface, and the Spaniards keep up its first designation. 
Satin is said by some to have been first made in China, though this is open 
to doubt. It is certain they were known in England as early as the thir- 
teenth century, and probably in France and Spain prior to that time under 
other designations. For a long period they were very little used, probably 
on account of their rarity, and it was not until the fifteenth century that 
they became common. It is evident that the high price they bore must 
necessarily have precluded them from general use, as instances of the 
payment of $27 for a coat of Persian satin are quite common. The general 



SAT COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 305 

color of these early satins was red, the mention of black satin by one 
writer being recorded as a notable fact. Proof of the increased production 
of satin in the fifteenth century is afforded by its sale to certain classes of 
people being forbidden by numerous laws. By one of these the use of 
satin and damask was confined to esquires and yeomen of the kings' house- 
hold; to gentlemen having posessions of the yearly value of $200, and to 
persons of higher rank. As time went on the industry of manufacturing 
satin was established in England, at the town of Spitalfields, by French 
refugees, and the fabric became so cheap and plentiful that the prohibitory 
laws were abolished. After this time satin became so common in all 
countries as not to need especial mention. 

Coming to the point as to what satin really is, it may be said, in brief, 
that it is a twill of a peculiar description. The high luster of the surface is 
due partly to the quality of the silk used, partly by dressing with hot rollers, 
but mainly by the manner of weaving. There has been printed an account 
of a romantic discovery of the manner of making satin, which is so entirely 
incorrect as to be all romance without even a foundation of fact: 

"The word ' satin,' 'which in the original was applied to all silk stuffs in general, has 
since the last century, been used to designate only tissues which present a luster ed surface. 
The discovery of this particular brilliant stuff was accidental. Octavio Main, a silk weaver 
finding business very dull, and not knowing what to invent to give a new impulse to the 
trade, -w as one day pacing to and fro before his loom. Every time he passed the machine, 
with no definite object in view, he pulled little threads from the warp and put them into his 
mouth, which soon after he spat out. Later on he found the little ball of silk on the floor 
of his workshop, and was attracted by the brilliant appearance of the threads. He repeated 
the experiment, and by using certain mucilaginous preparations succeeded in giving satin 
to the world." 

All silks were not originally known as satins. Satin does not depend 
for its glossiness on any previous preparation of the warp, but upon its 
peculiar manner of weaving, and afterwards upon a dressing given by roll- 
ing the fabric over heated cylinders. The circumstance above related is 
applicable to Taffeta (which see). In the weaving of most silk fabrics, the 
warp and weft intersect each other every alternate time, as in plain weaving 
or every third or fourth time as in twill weaving, in regular order, but in 
satin it is the fine silk warp only that appears on the surface of the fabric. 
The weft is completely hidden. Instead of the warp passing under the 
weft every other time, it passes over 8 (10, 12 or 16, according as may be 
desired) wefts, then under one and over eight more, and so on, but the 
warps in passing over the wefts do not interweave at regular intervals 
(which would produce a twill), but at irregular intervals, thus producing an 
even, close and smooth surface, which is capable of reflecting the rays of 
light very entire. It is thus that the fabric acquires that luster and bril- 
liancy which particularly distinguish it. The weft (or back) in ordinary 
qualities is cotton or linen, while the best goods, such as satin de Lyon, are 
all silk. When first taken out of the loom satin is somewhat flossy, and is 

" dressed" by being rolled in heated metal cylinders, which operation im- 
20 



306 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SAT 

parts to them a more brilliant luster and also removes the floss. In some 
of the older families of this country are preserved a few specimens of early 
attempts at making satin goods from home-raised silk. A comparison of 
those relics with the products of the present day brings the great improve- 
ments made in weaving into clearer light. The thread which makes the 
surface of satin is now more thoroughly tied down than formerly. In the 
best goods it no longer " floats " when the fingers are drawn across it. A 
solidity and eveness have been conferred on the fabric which renders it at 
once more compact and durable. A good quality of satin wears exceed- 
ingly well, but it cannot be cleaned or dyed satisfactorily, as it is liable to 
become frayed. [See Silk, Brocade.] 

Satin Cloth. A French woolen material of satin weave, having a 
smooth face. It is employed for women's dresses; is dyed in a variety of 
colors, and is of a stout quality and durable. In width it measures from 27 
to 30 inches, and is otherwise known by its French name, satin de laine. 

Satin Damask. A silk textile with an elaborate floral design. In 
some cases the pattern is raised in velvet upon the satin ground. 

Satin de Bruges (satin de bruzh). A fabric of silk and wool, having a 
smooth and satin-like surface. 

Satin Cuttanee (satin cut-tan-ee). A fine but thick cotton-backed 
material woven in stripes, and employed generally for upholstery pur- 
poses, though sometimes used for ladies' tea-gowns. Also called Indian 
cuttanee satin. 

Satin de Lyon. A fine quality of lustrous satin, produced at Lyons, 
France, woven with a silk back. There is also another popular variety of 
silk under this name which has less luster than the ordinary all-silk satins, 
and is of a thinner quality. The back is twilled, and it is much used for 
fine linings. 

Satin Duchess. A name applied to a heavy grade of silk dress fabric. 
It is woven with a grain so fine that it does not produce a grain effect, but 
partakes more of the nature of a perfectly close and plain weave, the sur- 
face being apparently composed of minute elevations and depressions, or 
nicked similar to peau de soie, but having more luster. Originally satin 
duchess was a thick and generally a plain satin, of good quality, usually in 
black colors without pattern. 

Satin or Broken Twill. In weaving this class of fabrics the peculiarity 
is that the order of interweaving the two sets does not follow consecutively, 
but at intervals. In these the order of interweaving is (generally) at every 
fifth end or pick, and the two succeeding picks do not interweave with 
adjoining ends, but at intervals of two. In other words, if No. 1 pick passes 
over the first end of warp, No. 2 will pass over the third end, and so on, in 
an irregular manner, in order to prevent the construction of a twill or 
ridge. 



SAf COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 30? 

Satinet. A material used almost exclusively in the manufacture of 
men's ready-made clothing. It is woven with a cotton warp and a weft of 
short, inferior or shoddy wool, which is mixed with enough long wool to 
enable it to be spun; and is woven in such a way as to bring the filling to 
the face of the cloth. On leaving the loom it is fulled, by which process 
the cotton is entirely concealed by the wool, sheared down smooth, and the 
pattern printed on the surface much in the same manner that figures are 
printed on calico. Large quantities of satinets are produced in New Eng- 
land, there being in all 60 mills representing 186 sets of machinery. A 
single set running on standard goods turns out 300 yards per day, making 
the total product of the 186 sets 55,800 yards per day, or 1,450,000 yards per 
month. The average value of these varieties at the mills is about 25 cents 
per yard, though the best are sold from 35 to 42 cents, single width 
Satinet is but from 10 to 15 cents cheaper than union cassimere, which in 
point of wear is much to be preferred, on account of the pattern being 
woven into the body of the goods, instead of simply stamped on, as is prac- 
ticed in satinet-making. [See Shoddy, Weaving.] 

Satinette. A fabric closely allied to satin, being a cheaper descrip- 
tion of the same, but equally durable, made in black and colors, and used 
as a dress material. 

Satin Jean. A thick, strong fabric, woven on the satin principle; used 
for corsets, linings and women's shoes. 

Satin Regence. A rich and expensive description of dress silk, woven 
with a satin surface broken by fine, sunken lines extending across the web 
from selvage to selvage. It is among the most costly of modern silk dress 
fabrics. 

Satin Rhadame (satin rad'-a-my). A dress fabric, the satin surface of 
which is broken by fine twilled lines, extending diagonally across the web. 
It is a lustrous fabric largely in use for fine silk dresses, made both all silk 
and cotton-backed. 

Satin Royal. A very fine and expensive variety of dress silk, with a 
glossy satin finish on both sides, each face being crossed by fine twills or 
sunken lines, after the manner of satin rhadame. It is always made 
entirely of pure silk, and has no right nor wrong side. 

Satin Sheeting. A material made of "waste silk," of satin weave on 
the face and twilled cotton on the back, the chief substance of the material 
being cotton. It is made in different degrees of fineness, runs 54 inches in 
width, and is employed for upholstery and embroidery purposes. Satin 
sheeting is thicker in substance, coarser in weaving, and less glossy than 
the ordinary cotton-backed satin . 

Satin Surah (satin su ' -rah). A medium-heavy satin-faced dress ma- 
terial, the surface of which is diagonallv crossed by a round cord or twill. 
[See Surah.] 



908 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SAY 

Say Cloth. A cloth now obsolete, but which at one time (two or three 
centuries ago) was a well known woolen serge, and one of the earliest pro- 
ductions of English and Irish looms. The manufacture flourished exceed- 
ingly from 1300 to 1700. After this period say cloth became merged in the 
common denomination of Cloth, until the name was revived and applied to 
a worsted material, which in 1800 was described as "a stout shalloon, 
twilled the same, and woven with a 4-Ieaf twill, but the warp and weft of 
say were heavier in order to make a stouter stuff, being made 42 inches 
wide and 42 yards long." 

Sayette (sa-ef). [From It. saiette serge.] A light fabric made of 
fine wool and silk; it is a species of serge, adapted for linings, furniture- 
coverings, and the like. Also, this name is applied to a kind of woolen 
yarn, intermediate in quality between combed yarn and carded yarn. A 
long wool is used, but instead of being combed it is carded on a mill of 
peculiar construction. It is used in making stockings, carpets, and Berlin 
wool work . Also called half-worsted yarn. [See Fayette.] 

Scarfing'. A cotton fabric, 18 inches in width, used for embroidering 
scarfs or covers for bedroom-dressers. When woven in fancy open patterns 
it is sometimes called scrim scarfing ; also made in linen. 

Schedule. A paper in the form of a list, often as an explanatory addi- 
tion to another document, containing an itemized statement of the goods 
located in a certain store, or belonging to a certain person, intended to ac- 
company a bill of sale, or other legal paper or proceeding. 

Scissors. A small pair of shears or blades, movable on a pivot. The 
word signified in the original Latin, not the cutting instrument, but the per- 
son who used it. (Latin scissor, one who divides.) In the same manner, 
tailors were in early times known and described as "cissors," the Italian 
word cessour still signifying a tailor or a cutter. 

Scotch Cambric. A fine cotton cambric, sometimes white and some- 
times printed, used especially for women's summer dresses. 

Scotch Cap. A knitted and fulled skull cap for men. [See Bonnet.] 

Scotch Carpet. See Carpet. 

Scrim. [From Fr. escrim, a shield, or protection.] A soft and loose- 
woven cotton fabric, often of fancy, lacey weave, used principally for win- 
dow curtains and drapery. 

Sealskin. For the supply of sealskin fur the markets of the United 
States and Europe are at the present day nearly entirely dependent upon 
the Behring Sea fisheries. The vast rookeries which at one time existed in 
the Southern hemisphere — in Patagonia, in the Faulkland islands, in Ker- 
guelen Land, and in numbers of islands in various parts of the Antarctic 
seas— nave been hunted almost out of existence. Seals are practically un- 
known where three-quarters of a century ago they were to be counted by 
millions. Indeed, although that side of the globe is rich in breeding 



SEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 309 

grounds of the finest description, with cool water, misty atmosphere, and 
good landings, there are now but few of these where the seal is found at 
all. The animal has disappeared before the ruthless energy and unre- 
strained greed of fishers of all nationalities, who for more than half a cen- 
tury traversed the waters bordering on the Antartic and slaughtered it — 
careless whether the prized fur which had attracted them thither should be 
known to the markets of the future, so long as they succeeded in securing 
from it in their own markets the greatest advantage with the least trouble 
and expense to themselves. This state of affairs was rapidly being ap- 
proached in the Behring Sea, when the United States and Canadian gov- 
ernments entered into agreement to restrict the wholesale slaughter of the 
seals, which has been carried on to such an extent the past few years that 
there was every prospect of the animals being killed off during the next 20 
years. With the result of promiscuous fishing in the Antartic regions to 
guide them these governments have decreed that but 50,000 seals shall be 
taken from the Behring Sea annually. Even under this restriction there is 
an immense waste connected with every skin obtained, on account of the 
seals being killed in open sea. It is estimated that for every animal recov- 
ered six are lost, for they invariably sink to the bottom on being shot. By 
far the greater proportion of sealskins that are captured are used in the 
United States, though France, Russia and Germany use a good many. The 
demand in this country averages from 60,000 to 65,000 per annum. All the 
skins captured are sent to London, where they are auctioned off in the 
month of October of every year. The best skins are dyed in London, 
where the process is a secret. Attempts have been made time and again 
in this country to discover their process, but have always resulted in failure. 
In London, or for that matter in the whole world, there are but two firms 
who can do the work. The making of the fine seal brown shade is known 
to the trade as the "old apple dye." Its history is said to be as follows: 
"About 1834 a man named Apple worked in a London refinery as a sugar 
baker. One day two fellow-workmen — an Austrian named Philip Dano- 
witz, the other a Frenchman — came to him with a secret. At home Dano- 
witz had been a dyer, while the Frenchman had been a weaver. Together 
they had made some experiments with dyes, and had by accident stum- 
bled upon a beautiful shade of brown. Neither, however, had any money 
to continue investigations. Apple had saved a few pounds, and with this 
he bought off the Frenchman, and together with Danowitz set about try- 
ing experiments with a few sealskins. They were eminently successful. 
The furriers were quick to see the commercial value of the new dye, and 
soon arrangements were made whereby a factory was erected and busi- 
ness begun in earnest. Apple was shrewd and secured an interest in the 
business. Danowitz was made foreman. He gave the secret to a fellow 
workman named Hayes. By him it was imparted to one George Sim- 
mons, who revealed it to a man named Winchelow. With Winchelow its 
spread ceased, and the closest of corporations was formed." Few skins 



310 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SEA 

are less attractive than seals' when taken off the animal. The fur is com- 
pletely covered and hidden by a dirty grey-brown and grizzled over-hair. 
This over-hair has to be removed; and is an operation requiring a very 
great amount of patience and skill, with a consequent increase in price. 
The expelling of the long, coarse over-hairs is effected by warmth and 
moisture, which softens the roots and enables them to be pulled out, or 
by shaving the inner skin very thin, which operation cuts off the roots of 
the hair which penetrate deeply, and leaves untouched those of the fur, 
which are very superficial. Whichever method is employed, the hair 
must be taken off uniformly or the fur will never lie smoothly, but will 
always have a rumpled look, which can not be corrected by any sub- 
sequent treatment. This will explain to some extent the cause of the 
high price of sealskin goods, and also the different prices one hears of, 
as a good many skins are more or less spoiled in dressing. Another 
cause, too, is on account of the monopoly of coloring the skins which the 
two dye houses hold. Formerly the pelt was dipped into a vat, but as 
the dye quickly rotted the skin, other means had to be resorted to. At 
present the dye is applied with a stiff brush, which goes to the root of 
the hair, but not further; the skin is then rolled up, fur inside, and after 
a little time, hung up and dried. The dry dye is then removed, and a 
further coat applied, dried, removed, and so on, till the requisite shade is 
obtained. From 8 to 12 coats are needed to produce a good color. 

Sealskin Cloth. A variety of cloaking made of the finest kind of 
mohair, the shade given by dyeing being exactly like that given to seal fur. 
It is manufactured at Yorkshire, England, and is used for ladies' outdoor 
jackets. This cloth must not be confounded with sealskin plush, which is 
also made in imitation of seal fur and used for ladies' cloaks and caps. 
The pile of the latter is composed of wild Tussar silk. [See Tussar, 
Plush.] 

Selvage. [From self edge, or that which makes an edge of itself with- 
out hemming.] The edge of a web or fabric so woven that it does not 
allow of raveling; also, that part of a web at either edge which is not fin- 
ished like the surface of the cloth, and which is meant to be torn away 
when the material is made up, or for use in making the seam; sometimes 
•spelled selvedge. 

Seersucker. A washable cotton fabric, woven in stripes, usually of blue 
and white or brown and white. [See Gingham.] 

Serge. A twilled worsted fabric, which, according to some writers, 
being at one time made from silk; and so, through the L. sericum, silk, 
derived its name. Other authorities show the word as coming from Ger. 
sarge or Dutch sargia, old records showing the word to have been at one 
time spelled sarge. The latter derivation is probably correct, as no serges 
of silk can be found mentioned until recent times, when serge de soi was 
in the last century sold as a dress material and more recently as a lining. 



SER COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 311 

Worsted serges were known and used as early as the twelfth century, the 
twill being of flat appearance and woven curiously fine. This fabric, 
known as wool serge, has for 600 years been almost exclusively used for 
men's clothing. The modern fabric varies but little from those made cen- 
turies ago. In weight and texture it belongs to the flannel family, being 
woven in a fine or coarse twill with a worsted warp and a woolen weft, 
which accounts for the springy, elastic nature of true serge. 

Fabrics under the general title of serge are woven of either silk or 
wool, or a mixture of both. Wool serges are finished both rough and 
smooth-faced, and also with napped and smooth backs. Serge cloth is 
smooth on one side and rough on the other. Witney serges are heavy and 
wooly throughout. Botany serges are of a soft, loose diagonal weave, with 
a somewhat heavy wale or rib. Storm serge is a broad-twilled, old-fashioned 
weave, somewhat similar to the modern "clay" diagonal. French flannel 
serge or serge de Berri is composed of long wool, and has somewhat the 
appearance of India cashmere dress goods. Pompadour flannel serge is 
so designated on account of the small flower designs with which they are 
decorated. [See Pompadour.] The coarse and heavy kinds, employed 
for upholstery are of double width, whether of wool or silk. Silk serge 
is principally employed at present by tailors for the lining of coats, and for 
umbrella covers. 

Seric (ser-ik'). [From Latin seric, whence comes our word "silk."] 
The Seres were an Asiatic people from whom the ancient Greeks and 
Romans got their first silk. The name seres in old historical records is 
used vaguely, but their land is generally understood to be China in its more 
northern aspect. [See Silk.] 

Serpentine Braid. A black worsted trimming braid, so called from its 
resemblence to the winding or sinuous motion of a serpent. [See 
Braid.] 

Serviette (ser-vi-ef). A napkin. 

Sewing silk. The present manufacture of sewing silk is a direct de- 
velopment of the colonial fireside industry, and formed the first factory silk 
product of the United States. Immediately after the Revolution when 
money was a scarce article among our gallant ancestors the women of New 
England adopted silk culture as a means for obtaining a livelihood. They 
reeled the lustrous thread from the cocoons upon the clumsy hand reels, 
spun the thread on spinning wheels made for wool, dyed the precious skeins 
at home and bartered them for merchandise of various sorts at the country 
store. In the lack of money skein-silk took its place and the Legislatures 
of New England provided a fine of $7 against any one convicted of offering 
for sale "any sewing silk, unless each skein consist of twenty threads, each 
of the length of 2 yards." Twenty-five skeins made a bunch and 4 bunches 
a "package." Previous to the invention of the sewing machine, silk thread 
was all made into skeins, being formed of two strands twisted from right to 



312 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SEW 

left. It was sufficiently smooth for the needle used in hand sewing, but 
would not answer for the sewing-machine. After many experiments the 
discovery was made that this defect could be obviated by making the thread 
of 3 fine strands, and twisting them harder and closer than the skein thread 
for hand-sewing. The latter at present has completely taken the place of 
the former, except with merchant tailors and other makers of clothing. In 
the United States alone $15,000,000 worth of sewing thread and twist is 
consumed annually, nearly all of which is made in New England. One 
establishment in Florence, Massachusetts, employs 60 automatic spooling 
machines, each winding 110 dozen a day. Skein silk, which is sold by the 
ounce, is weighed out by automatic machines. Sewing silks and twists 
are dyed in two different qualities — "pure dyed" and "standard dyed." In 
the first case, one ounce of dye matter is added to 12 ounces of scoured silk; 
in the second, 4 ounces are added; equalizing, it is claimed, the gum 
subtracted in the scouring. Beyond this proportion, if the silk is weighted 
with dye, it is not so strong as its weight would imply. Spool silk comes in 
50 and 100 yard lengths. Black is made in sizes 000, 00, 0, A, B, C, D, and 
E, from fine to coarse in the order named. Colors are made in size A, 
only, that being the medium and most used number. 

Shadow Silt. It is the habit of manufacturers of giving names, and 
sometimes queer ones, to every novelty that is introduced, and frequently 
the name is a misnomer; or again, a revival of silks or other goods long ago 
in vogue will be heralded under a new name. The name sometimes attracts 
as much attention as the goods. Shadow silk is, in reality, only another 
name for changeable or iridescent silk, a style that has been woven since 
the " time when the mind of man runneth not to the contrary." The surface 
of these goods has the appearance of being composed of light and dark 
tints, which change into intermediate shades with every movement of the 
wearer, according as the sunlight or sombre light strikes upon it. This is 
due to the warp being of a high luster and lighter color than the weft. [See 
Changeable, Shot, Chien.] 

Shaker Flannel. Shaker is the name of a religious sect which emi- 
grated to the United States in 1774 and colonized in different portions of 
various Eastern States. The people belonging to these societies live 
together in communities and possess large tracts of land, flour and woolen 
mills, etc., which they own in common. The flannels which they at one 
time manufactured, of mixed wool and cotton, were of superior quality, and 
hence took the name of the people who made it. Shaker flannel at the 
present time is a soft finished, slightly napped material, made of cotton 
warp and wool weft, in plain white or solid red. There are also varieties of 
all-wool and all-cotton flannels, called Shaker, on account of the soft finish 
and nappy surface. 

Shalloon. A variety of worsted serge, twilled on both sides exactly 
alike. 



SHA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 313 

Shantung Pongee Silk. A soft, undyed and undressed Chinese wash- 
ing silk, made in imitation of the India or Hindoo goods of the same 
character, but higher luster. The various qualities are uniformly nineteen 
inches in width, and measure twenty yards per piece. The silk is manu- 
factured in the province of Shantung, China, and printed with patterns 
after being landed in this country. [See Pongee.] 

Shaps. [Corrupted from Spanish chaparejos.] Leather overalls or 
leggins, worn by cow-boys in western United States and Mexico. 

Shawl. [From Persian and Hindostanee shal.] An article of apparel 
made after the shape of a large kerchief, the manufacture of which is be- 
lieved to have originated in the valley of Cashmere, a district still pre- 
eminent in the production of these goods. The manufacture of shawls was 
first begun in England in 1784. They copied the Hindoo and Persian 
styles, but the process was very slow and the result consequently costly. 
The best specimens at this time were made with silk warp and worsted weft, 
but the designs were darnea by hand. It was not until 1805 that a shawl 
was produced entirely in the loom in England. In Paisley and Edinburg, 
Scotland, the manufacture was introduced about the same time, but in the 
United States the manufacture of fine broche shawls has never been es- 
tablished. [See Shetland, Cashmere, Camel's Hair.] 

Shawl Material. A brocaded fabric of silk and wool, used for dresses 
and portions of dresses by women. The material is soft and flexible and is 
usually woven in designs of Oriental character, or in patterns similar to 
those seen in Brocha and Paisley shawls. 

Sheep-gut. An article known in trade under the erroneous title of 
cat-gut. It is made of the twisted intestines of sheep. Whip cord, hatters' 
cord, bow string, violin, guitar, and harp strings are all made of sheep-gut, 
variously prepared. 

Sheer. A term applied to cotton or linen fabrics which are fine and 
thin ; soft and pliable. 

Sheeting. Bleached or unbleached muslin, woven plain or twilled, 
ranging in width from 72 to 108 inches; in weight from 2%, to 4 square yards 
to the pound weight; and in number of threads to the inch from 46 to 88 
each way. "Standard '' sheeting weighs 2.85 yard to the pound. Pillow- 
casing ranges in width from 52 to 64 inches. [See Muslin, Appendix 
" B."] 

Shetland Lace. An ornamental woolen trimming, made like open- 
work lace, except that it is made of finer woolen yarn, and is, therefore, 
coarser and larger in pattern, and capable of being made very warm. 

Shetland Shawls. A variety of fine light-weight shawls originally 
made on the Shetland Islands, off the coast of Scotland. The wool of which 
the genuine article is made, is obtained from a native breed of sheep, which 
resemble the famous Cashmere goats of Thibet. The yarn is spun and 



314 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SHI 

prepared by the native women, who also knit the shawls, always by hand. 
These shawls have long been in favor for their warmth and lightness, but 
the acme of perfection seems to have been reached in one lately exhibited 
at Lerwick, Shetland Isles, which was entirely of hand-work, being hand 
carded, spun and knit, the wool for the same having been pulled from the 
neck of the living animal. This shawl measures two and one-quarter yards 
square, weighs only three ounces, and can easily be passed through an 
ordinary sized finger-ring. It contains 10,200 yards of 2-ply yarn of daz- 
zling whiteness, and is knitted in intricate and varied patterns. Imitations 
of Shetland shawls are knitted in this country, by machinery, of ordinary 
wool, in various sizes and colors, and sold under the same name. The de- 
mand for the Shetland increases year by year; no other garment in the way 
of a wrap hangs more gracefully, and nothing for light evening wear has so 
soft and pleasing an effect. 

Shift. An undergarment; a shirt; especially a woman's under gar- 
ment; a chemise. 

Shirt. The English speaking peoples are indebted to the Arabs for 
the article of apparel known as the shirt, the Arabic name for which was 
camis, whence comes Italian camisca, and French chemise. It was called 
by our Saxon ancestors indiscriminately sherte, camise and shift, at which 
time the undermost garments of both sexes were of similar shape and 
materials. The word "shirt" is derived from the Saxon word sceort, short; 
and that from Latin curtus, having a similar meaning; hence curtail, etc., 
so that shirt is literally a short garment. One-half inch m the length of 
the neckband constitutes a "size" in shirt-numbering. With this is associ- 
ated the length of the sleeve, the difference in the lengths of which is one 
inch. The best stock shirt manufacturers make 6 lengths of sleeves, rang- 
ing from 30 inches to 36 inches long, but the neckband number is the one 
used in naming the size of the shirt. The size of collars and cuffs is one- 
half inch in their lengths. The regulation or "standard" dimensions of the 
bosom of ordinary open-back shirts is 1% by 13>£ inches. An open-front, 
or open-back-and-front should be 8 by 15. Anything beyond this is super- 
fluous and injures the set. In the South, it is the fashion to discard the 
waistcoat in summer, and so the bosoms of Southern summer shirts are 
made 17 inches in length, in order that they may reach below the waist- 
band of the trousers. The following singular calculation has been made 
by a shirt-maker, regarding the number of stitches required to complete a 
shirt: Stitches in collar, four rows, 3,000; cross ends of same, 500; button- 
hole and sewing on button, 150; gathering neck and sewing on collar, 
1,204; stitching the wristbands, 1,228; ends of wristbands, 68; buttonholes 
in wristbands, 148; hemming slits, 264; gathering sleeves, 840; setting on 
wristbands, 1,468; stitching on shoulder-straps, 1,880; hemming the bosom, 
393; sewing up side seams of sleeves, 2,554; cording bosom, 1,104; "tap- 
ping" the sleeves, 1,526; sewing all other seams and setting side gussets, 



SHI COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 315 

1,272; total number of stitches, 20,649. The embroidered bosoms, now so 
extensively used for dress shirts in this country, come largely from Ger- 
many, where men as well as women work upon them in the country dis- 
tricts, when field labor is suspended. Some years ago a damask manufac- 
turer in Scotland made a shirt entirely in the loom, without any kind of 
needlework, and sent it to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. The neck, 
wristbands and shoulder-straps were of double cloth, neatly stitched; the 
buttonholes properly worked with appropriate stitch, the buttons sewed on, 
the gussets inserted, and a ruffle added. On the breast the Glasgow arms 
were woven, and the motto, "Let Glasgow Flourish." One of the queerest 
of superstitions is that entertained by steamboat hands and raftsmen along 
the Mississippi river, regarding the finding of a drowned person by means 
of his shirt. The shirt is taken to the place where the unfortunate is sup- 
posed to have gone down, spread out upon the water and allowed to 
float away. If the shirt in floating along with the current crosses the spot 
where the body lies it will slowly and unsteadily eddy about the surface 
for a few moments, as if locating the exact spot, and then rapidly sink to 
the bottom. 

Shirting". Any fabric designed for making shirts, such as cheviot, 
osnaburg and percale; specifically, brown or bleached muslin, as distin- 
guished from sheeting. Calico and percale shirting are usually printed 
with but one or two colors, in small neat patterns. Fancy shirting is woven 
in simple patterns, such as plaids and stripes, after the manner of gingham, 
and is termed in trade Oxford shirting. A gingham is a cotton fabric used as a 
ladies' dress material, whereas Oxford shirting is a cotton material used for 
making shirts, or ladies' and children's waists. By examining Oxford 
shirting it will be found that two warps run side by side, and that the 
filling binds these two together. It is this peculiarity in weave that gives 
the name Oxford to this class of shirting. Cotton shirting flannels differ 
materially in point of structure from gingham, particularly in the softness 
of the Weft yarns used, though each are plain-woven, with the patterns 
woven in instead of being printed on. The napping or teasling process 
requires that the weft be very loosely twisted, otherwise the yarn will not 
yield to the teeth of the napping machine. The napping of cotton shirting 
flannels is usually performed by passing the goods over cylinders armed 
with wire teeth, which pull out the surface fibers of the filling threads. 
When a heavy appearance is desired with a long, woolly surface, the teas- 
ling process is completed when the cloth leaves the napping machine; but 
if a smooth, even surface is required, as in the delicate French flannel, the 
goods are calendered by being passed between iron rollers heated by steam. 
[See Flannelette, Domet, Percale, Osnaburg, Calico, Cheviot.] 

Shirt-waist. A garment for both women's and children's wear, resem- 
bling a shirt in fashion, but extending no lower than the waist, where it is 
belted. They are manufactured of all kinds and qualities of materiasl, 



316 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SHO 

ranging in size from 4-year small to 18-year large — the bust measure being 
indicated by ages. 

Shoddy. Formerly a term applied to the waste thrown off in wool- 
spinning, but now applied to the shredded wool of old cloth, reduced to a 
fibrous condition to be re-manufactured. 

It is surprising how little people, in general, know what shoddy is, and 
the prejudice against the use of shoddy in woolen goods is simply a result 
of this ignorance. The term of shoddy is erroneously applied to all fibers 
that have been carded from a fabric, no matter what grade or quality. 
This is the first mistake. All of the various wool fibers obtained from cloth is 
called "mungo." These, again, are subdivided into "new" and "old" mungo. 
Old mungo is used only in the very poorest class of woolen goods— into 
satinets and cheap "beavers." If the clothing manufacturer wants a pound 
of goods for forty cents or less, labor and all expense included, he must 
know that he cannot obtain cloth in which even new mungo has been used, 
and if there is a demand for that class of goods the supply will be forth- 
coming. New mungos made from fine all-wool cassimeres and from blue, 
black and brown new worsted clippings is a choice fiber, and will equal fall 
Texas and California wool in length and strength, as the fabric has been 
but little pulled and not worn. The term shoddy, however, applies to all 
fibers obtained from fabrics which have not been fulled at all, viz., flannels 
and knitted goods. The lady, when she discards her opera hood or fasci- 
nator, does not dream that she will wear that same article again trans- 
formed in a fine cloak. Her fascinator was crocheted from pure fine Berlin 
zephyr yarn. She has not injured it any. It has been subject to very little- 
wear, and when it is picked back into the yarn from which it was made, and 
that yarn opened up by cards into a wool fiber, it will take a very fine wool 
to compete with it. It is ridiculous to assume that all this material should 
be burnt up and new wool used in its stead, especially when new wool can- 
not compete with this class of stock unless of very choice grade. The same 
applies to ladies' dresses. Many a gentleman wears on his back a part of 
the dress his wife discarded — that dress being made from the best Austra- 
lian combing wool; worked up again, it retains its character — is, of course 
shorter and cannot be combed again, but the fibers being used with new 
wool into fulled goods will make as serviceable a garment as could be de- 
sired. To classify such stock in the same catagory with old mungo and 
call it all shoddy will appear very ludicrous. The fact is, that these better 
qualities of shoddies are used as wool in the highest class of goods, and the 
consumer obtains full value — just the same as if he wishes to buy a suit all 
fitted for $6, he will get it — but there will be neither shoddy nor wool in it, 
except the wool contained in old cloth (mungo) and some cotton to help 
spin it. Some shoddy is better than wool, and some wool is better than 
shoddy. 

More than one claim has been put forward for the credit of founding 
this important manufacture, but there seems little doubt that Benjamin 



SHO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 317 

Law, of Batley, England, first wove a piece of cloth from shoddy in 1813. 
Previous to this time woolen rags had little commercial value, being used 
only to be torn up into " flock " for stuffing saddles or furniture, or em- 
ployed in agriculture for manure. Shoddy consists of rags and shreds of 
stockings, flannels and other good worsted fabrics. Mungo consists of 
the clippings of fulled goods and tailors' waste, torn and reduced to frag- 
ments of the original fiber. These rags are first thoroughly oiled, and then 
passed through a machine significantly called the " devil," which literally 
rends the rags into minute particles that look more like dust than fibers. 
This is done by the rapid rotation of a large cylinder armed with powerful 
iron spikes, with equally strong toothed-rollers revolving in an opposite 
direction. Mungo cannot be used without a due proportion of natural- 
length wool, usually one-fourth of pure wool being employed in spinning. 
Both shoddy and mungo find their way into a very large proportion of 
woolen goods, such as linings, rugs, wraps and heavy overcoating, drug- 
gets, blankets and satinets. " Shoddy "was formerly a term of opprobrium 
in connection with woolen manufactures — the bad name being obtained 
during the war — but it is now recognized as a material of great utility for 
many purposes where body and warmth are more essential than toughness 
or elasticity. When not employed fraudulently its use wrongs nobody. By 
mixing mungo with wool or cotton in fair proportions, manufacturers are 
enabled to supply comfortable and serviceable material for clothing at a 
low price; and so long as the world contains poor people, so long will it be 
desirable that such materials shall be manufactured. 

There is not much room for doubt respecting the influence upon the 
price of wool by the use of these fibers. That the employment of these sub- 
stances operates to put down the price of wool can hardly be questioned by 
any one who will examine the subject. The use of both wool and shoddy 
represents the supply of a demand which could not be supplied (in the 
absence of the former) without a larger consumption of wool, and thus the 
lessened demand for wool acts to keep down the price. The withdrawal of 
shoddy from industry would certainly advance the price of wool — notably 
the price of cheap wool. It is also claimed by a certain class of political 
economists that the shoddy industry was developed and its existence made 
possible by restrictions placed on the importation of pure raw wool. If it 
were not for our high duties (they claim) on imported cheap wool, our man- 
ufacturers could purchase the raw material from South America and Aus- 
tralia and make a strictly all-wool fabric at the same price at which they 
can produce the substituted article, thus giving the consumer a strictly pure 
wool material at the same cost. [See Wool, Woolen, Worsted.] 

Shoes. See Boots and Shoes. 

Shoe Pegs. A short wooden nail used for fastening the uppers to the 
soles of boots and shoes. Shoe peg making is an important branch of busi- 
ness in Maine and Pennsylvania, over 1500 cords of wood being annually 



318 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



SHO 



consumed in the manufacture. The pegs are sold by the bushel, and are 
worth from 75 cents to $1 per bushel. The value of the yearly product 
amounts to over $300,000, large quantities being exported. 

Shoe Protector. A narrow band of water-proofed velvet designed to 
be sewn on the inside of the dress skirt at the bottom, to prevent the 
chafing of the shoe. 

Shoe Thread. A strong unbleached flax thread yarn, made for the 
special use of shoemakers. The thread receives no twisting by machinery, 
the cobbler doing this for himself, waxing it previously. It is put up in 
boxes of 8 balls to the pound. 

Shot. A term applied to silk fabrics having a changeable color like 
that produced in weaving, by all the warp threads being of one color and 
all the weft of another. Silk is the usual material thus woven but there 
are also shotted alpacas and shotted velvets. [See Changeable, Shadow 
Silk, Chien.] 

Shroud. A winding-sheet; a covering of the nature of a garment in 
in which a dead body is wrapped, as a long white robe or gown, prepared 
expressly for the burial. 

Shuttle. An instrument for carrying the thread of weft between the 
threads of warp in weaving. [See Loom.] 

Sicillian. A mohair dress fabric. [See Mohair.] 

Side Comh. A comb used in a woman's head-dress to retain a curl or 
lock of hair on the side of the head, usually in front of the ear; about 1850 
such combs, generally of tortoise shell, were in common use. [See Tor- 
toise Shell.] 

Silesia. Formerly a thin linen fabric, or sleasy kind of holland, so 
called because made in Silesia, a province of Germany. At present the 
term describes a fine-twilled cotton fabric, highly dressed and calendered, 
used for linings. It is piece-dyed in all conceivable solid colors, tints and 
shades, and sometimes printed, though generally the patterns are produced 
in the loom. 



Silk. 



The Wobd Silk in Diffehent Languages. 



LANGUAGE. 


WOBD. 


LANGUAGE. 


WORD. 


Corea, 


Sir. 


Icelandic, 


Silke. 


Chinese, 


Se. 


Anglo Saxon 


Siolc. 


Mongol, 


Sirkek. 


Danish, 


Silcke. 


Mandchou, 


Sirghe. 


English, 


Silk. 


Greek, 


Ser, 


Welsh, 


Sirig. 


Arabic and Syraic, 


Seric. 


Latin, Middle Ages, 


Seda. 


Latin, 


Sericum. 


Italian, 


Seta. 


Slavonian, 


' Chelk. 


German, 


Seide. 


Gothic, 


Silke. 


French or English, 


Satin. 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 319 

More than three million human beings depend upon the industry of the 
petty silk worm for their daily bread; and all the world owes to him much 
of the splendor of its nightly gayety. "With patience and perseverence," 
says the Spanish proverb, "the mulberry leaf will become satin," and in the 
whole gamut of human vanities there is no contrast more strange and no 
lesson more significant than our dependence upon the patience of a de- 
spised worm, and the perseverence of the human toiler, adding thread to 
thread, for the richest and most splendid fabric known to man. Silk is to 
textile fabrics what gold is amongst the metals, and what the diamond is 
amongst the jewels. 

The immediate offspring of our first parents having subdued the sheep 
and learned how to make use of its wool, and another branch of the pri- 
mordial family, known as the Egyptians, having discovered and been the 
first to cultivate flax, which they used as a textile material on account of 
the blossom resembling the etherial blue of the heavens, it remained for 
the post-diluvian descendants of Noah, the Chinese people, to discover 
and develop the cultivation of the silk worm. It is in keeping with the 
eternal fitness of things that the discovery of the utility and excellence of 
the material derived from the silk worm should be traceable to female 
genius, in the person of Mistress See-ling-chi, wife of Hoang-ti, emperor 
of China 2,700 years before the Christian era. According to the written 
records of China, it was this empress who with her own royal hands first 
unraveled the cocoons and wove the glossy filaments into a web of glorious 
sheen. She is now throughout the Mongolian empire worshipped as the 
" goddess of silk worms," and at her annual festival the reigning empress 
performs the ceremony of feeding the worms. The Chinese guarded well 
the secret of their valuable art, and on account of their vigilant jealousy 
many centuries elapsed before the culture spread beyond the country of 
its origin. Not only for many ages did this people have a monopoly of 
the manufacture, but so far as can be learned, they successfully prevented 
the shipment of silk worms out of the empire, so that the material com- 
posing the fabrics imported from thence by the Romans was a matter of 
curiosity and conjecture; it being supposed that silk was made from fleeces 
growing upon trees, or from flowers, tales evidently founded on slender 
facts connected indiscriminately with cotton, wool, and flax. The word 
"silk" used twice in the Old Testament, is considered by many critics a 
mistranslation, and the first mention of the word in any historical writings, 
seems to be that by Aristotle, who credits Pamphilian, a lady of Cos, with 
the first weaving of a transparent silk gauze, so fine that it was called 
"woven wind." These tissues according to historians became very fashion- 
able with the people of that early period, but were stigmatized by the 
moralists as anything but decent for women's wear. Seneca condemns 
them: "I behold," he says, "silken garments, if garments they can be 
called, which are a protection neither for the body nor for shame." An 
echo to the remarks of Seneca are the words of Solinus: "This is silk, 



320 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

in which at first women, but now even men have been led by their craving- 
after luxury, to show rather than clothe their bodies." It is evident from 
these statements that the importation of raw silk was first brought from 
China overland through India and Persia to this island of Cos, then under 
Greek domination. The Greeks knew the silk people as Seres* — there is 
much dispute as to the real origin of the name— and called the product 
serikon, whence through Latin sericum, and an intermediate form selic, 
comes our word silk. 

Towards the beginning of the Christian era raw silk began to form an 
important and costly item among the prized products of the East which 
came to Rome, but as yet the Romans possessed no knowledge of how the 
raw material was produced. Fine silk at this time was worth its weight in 
gold. Notwithstanding its price and the restraints otherwise put on the 
use of silk, the trade grew. A monopoly of it was reserved by the Roman 
government under Justinian, who during a war with the Persians in the 
6th century, A. D., endeavored to divert the trade from along the old es- 
tablished Persian overland route by which silk had always been brought to 
Rome. The result was that the entire supply of raw silk was cut off. 
Justinian then resorted to a ruse in order to get possession of the secret 
of producing raw silk. By paying them a larger sum of money, he induced 
two Nestorian monks who had long resided in China to return thither and 
learn the whole art and mystery of the business, and to make an attempt to 
bring back the materials necessary for the cultivation of silk. These in- 
trepid monks traversed on foot the whole of Persia, India and China, and 
there, amidst their apparently pious occupations, they viewed with a curi- 
ous eye the common dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the 
myriads of silk worms, whose education, either on trees or in houses, had 
once been considered the occupation of queens. They soon discovered 
that it was impracticable to transplant the short-lived insect, but that in 
the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved and multiplied in a dis- 
tant climate. Accordingly they returned with several thousand silk worm 
eggs hidden in their hollow bamboo pilgrim staffs, and a thorough knowl- 
edge of the industry stored in their heads. From the precious contents of 
these two bamboo canes, brought from China in the year 550, were produced 
all the races and varieties which have stocked the Western world, and 

*Silk was first described as coming from Serica or Sereinda, that part of India 
which lies beyond the Ganges. Seres is the designation given by the Greeks and Romans 
to the people who inhabited these remote regions, and Sereinda is, apparently, a compound 
of Seres and India. . The latter is a general term applied by the ancients to all distant 
nations, with as little precision as India is now used by modern Europeans. It is now so 
generally admitted that the Seres of the ancients are the Chinese of the moderns that it is 
unnecessary to enter into any discussion in proof of this belief. Se is the name for silk 
in the Chinese language; this, by a faulty pronunciation, not uncommon in their frontier 
provinces, acquired the final r, thus changing the word into Ser, the very name adopted by 
the Greeks. We can, therefore, hardly doubt that these obtained the name, as well as the 
material itself, first from China. 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 321 

which have given trade, prosperity and untold wealth to great com- 
munities for more than thirteen hundred years. Justinian made 
silk culture an imperial monopoly, in charge of the monks; imported 
weavers from Tyre and Berytus, raised the selling price of silk 
8-fold and that of royal purple 24-fold, and filled his depleted 
treasury with wealth. It was not until death disposed of him and his mon- 
opoly that the Byzantine and Grecian looms fairly began the industry after- 
ward so famous. From Rome the silk culture spread into Greece. A little 
later conquest carried it into Sicily. From there to Italy it was but a step. 
On over the border it went into Spain and France, where soil, climate and 
people exactly suited it. In all these countries the industry took root, 
grew, throve, and continues to this day. 

In the New World silk culture had been a plan of the Spaniards for 
Mexico, immediately after its discovery. Cortez, in his scheme of govern- 
ment for New Spain (1522), included officers to oversee silk growing; silk- 
worm eggs were sent from Spain; some export of raw silk is recorded, and 
woven silk goods were made in and exported from Mexico; but the indus- 
try did not outlive the century. When King James' plan for silk-making 
in England was prominent in his mind, he began also to look to his colo- 
nies for a supply of silk, and most of the early schemes for developing Vir- 
ginia included silk culture. Accordingly in 1622 one John Bonell was sent 
over to Virginia as instructor in silk culture, and with him went the most 
pre-emptory instructions for the compulsion of any person found "through 
negligence to omit the planting of vines and mulberry-trees in an orderly 
and husbandlike manner, as by the Big Booke is prescribed." Twenty 
pounds of tobacco was the penalty of neglect, and a premium of fifty 
pounds of tobacco was offered for every pound of reeled silk produced. 
During Cromwell's time many pious tracts were written to promote silk- 
culture in the colonies, one inspired fraud arguing that if the native Indians 
were led "to see this untaught worm spin out his transparent bowels" it 
might be possible to drive him to acknowledge the power of redemption; 
while another embellished his tract on "The Reformed Virginia Silk- 
Worm" with the following curious bit of doggerel: 

'Where worms and Food doe naturally abound, 
A Gallant Silken trade must there be found. 
Virginia excels the World in both: 
Envie nor malice can gainsay this troth.. 
Her worms are huge, whose cocoons dare 

With lemons of the largest size compare 

Master William Wright of Nansemond 
Found cocoons 'bove seven inches round." 

Of course the poet exaggerated; no cocoons of such dimensions were 

ever grown. An act of parliament in 1749 declared that "Georgia and 

South Carolina should have the honor of being denominated 'silk colonies,' 

and King George ordered for Georgia a seal on which was the design of 

the genius of the colony offering a skein of silk to the king." A public gar- 
21 



322 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

den at Savannah was devoted to vines and mulberry trees, and a filature 
for reeling the silk was built. Georgia, in fact, made what seemed a fair 
start; in 1766, 20,000 pounds of cocoons were produced, and in 1768, 1,084 
pounds of reeled silk were exported. But the industry was a forced one, 
the bounties being at one period two or three times the value of the cocoons, 
and it did not find commercial justification; consequently it languished and 
waned. Shortly before the Revolution there was a revival of the silk 
fever, chiefly in the northern colonies of Pennsylvania and Connecticut. A 
bounty of 10 shillings for every 100 trees kept thrifty was secured, and 3 
pence per ounce for all raw silk made from them. But the war came, and 
the colonists had their hands full with fighting and raising breadstuff, and 
the silk industry was suspended. After the Revolution silk-making revived 
literally as a "household industry;" the women and children of Connecticut 
families raised from 5 to 130 pounds per annum. Sewing-silk was the 
bridge between silk growing and the present manufacture. The, women 
reeled from the cocoon upon the clumsy hand-reels, spun on the spinning- 
wheels made for wool, dyed the precious skeins at home, and bartered 
them for various sorts of merchandise at the country store. In the lack of 
money skein silk took its place, and the Legislature provided for a fine of 
$7 against any one convicted of offering for sale "any sewing silk, unless 
each skein consist of 20 threads each of the length of 2 yards." Twenty- 
five skeins made a "bunch," and 4 bunches a "package." 

About 1838 a speculative mania for the cultivation of silk developed 
itself with remarkable severity in the United States. It was caused princi- 
pally through the representations of a man named Whitmarsh as to the 
capabilities of the South Sea Islands mulberry for feeding silk worms. So 
intense was the excitement that fruit trees and crops of all kinds were dis- 
placed to make room for the wonderful mulberry bushes. In Pennsylvania 
as much as $300,000 changed hands for the plants in one week, and fre- 
quently the young trees were sold three or four times over within a few 
days at ever-advancing prices. Plants of a single years' growth reached 
the ridiculous price of $1 each at the height of the fever, which, however, 
did not last long, for in 1839 the speculation collapsed; the famous mul- 
berry was found to be no golden tree, and the costly plantations were 
uprooted. One of the most singular features in connection with the history 
of silk is the sporadic efforts which have been made by monarchs and gov- 
ernments to stimulate silk culture in their respective countries, efforts 
which continue down to the present time in the United States, England, 
India, and other British colonies. These efforts, to stimulate by bounties 
and other artificial means, have in no instance resulted in permanent suc- 
cess. In truth, raw silk can only be profitably brought to market in coun- 
tries where there is very cheap labor and an abundance of it. This is made 
plain by the fact that China, Italy and Japan are and always have been the 
principal silk-producing countries of the world. These countries are inex- 
haustible storehouses of raw silk. They furnish nine-tenths of the world's 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 323 

supply, and could easily double their annual production without materially 
increasing the price. The silk industry which has become so large an 
interest in this country is purely a manufacturing one, getting the raw 
material abroad, duty free. The manufacturers do not expect much result 
from silk-raising in America, chiefly because they think silk cannot be well 
reeled here at a satisfactory price. The only field for American silk grow- 
ing seems to be restricted chiefly to that of a subsidiary industry for women 
and children, who would otherwise not be employed, and could therefore 
afford to work cheap, and then the industry would be under the disadvant- 
age of "house-reeling." Whether the production of cocoons, not for reel- 
ing, but for the direct use of the "spun silk" manufacture, might be profit- 
able, is very doubtful, in view of the low price paid for cocoons for this 
purpose — from 50 to 75 cents per pound. 

There are two distinct departments of industry that go to making silk 
textiles: Seri-culture or silk raising, which consists in the raising of mul- 
berry trees and the rearing of the silk worms; and silk manufacture pro- 
per, by which the silk fiber is worked into thread and fabric. These in- 
dustries are seldom, and never necessarily, associated together, and the 
commercial interests of the grower and of the manufacturer sometimes 
seem to clash, yet most silk countries pursue both. The excellence of silk 
in its raw state depends upon the properties of the mulberry leaves, 
which often are considerably diversified. The white mulberry is regarded 
as being the best, though there are several varieties, each of which in some 
degree depends upon the locality and climate. Trees which are 3 years 
old yield about 7 pounds of leaves apiece. An ounce of silk worms (when 
born) will consume during their life about 1,500 pounds of leaves. The 
consumption at the beginning is very small, but becomes quite large 
toward the end of his existence. A very tiny object is the egg of a silk 
worm, not bigger than an ordinary pin's head, and yet an enormous trade 
is carried on in rearing them. Each moth lays from 200 to 300 eggs, and 
it takes about 34,000 eggs to weigh an ounce. Some years ago, when there 
was a disease in the European silk worm, it was deemed necessary to im- 
port fresh "grain" or "seed," as it is technically termed, from Japan. The 
importance of the trade may be estimated from the fact that there was in- 
troduced in the ten years ending with 1872 about 4,000,000 ounces of silk 
worms' eggs to Italy and France, the aggregate cost of which was $80,000,- 
000. When the silk worm is fully mature it proceeds to spin its cocoon, in 
which operation it ejects from two little glands simultaneously a line of 
thread about 400 yards in length. The worm in forming the cocoon 
moves its head round and round in regular order for 3 days, at the end of 
which time it is completely enveloped. This forms the cocoon of com- 
merce. They are dried for a few days and then immersed in boiling water 
to kill the worm within, after which they are ready to be sent to market to 
be reeled. To produce sufficient silk to make a dress pattern requires 
more time and capital than is generally supposed. If we take \% pounds 



324 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

as the weight of pure silk required, this would equal 2 pounds of raw silk, 
because in extracting the gum from raw silk it loses 25 per cent, of its 
weight. To produce 2 pounds of raw silk requires the entire silk obtained 
from 7,000 to 8,000 worms, allowing a percentage for death by disease and 
other casualties. It may be interesting to state that these 7,000 or 8,000 
worms when newly hatched would scarcely weigh one-quarter of an ounce, 
yet in the course of their life, which only lasts from 30 to 35 days, they 
will consume about 400 pounds of leaves and increase in weight 9,000 
times. Purchasers of silk will not wonder at its high price when they con- 
sider that to raise two pounds of raw silk so much time and money is re- 
quired. Besides the original cost of the eggs or young worms, they re- 
quire feeding several times daily with leaves. This is a large item of ex- 
pense if the cultivator does not grow and gather his own leaves, but is 
compelled to purchase them. Then follow the various processes of 
gathering the cocoons and reeling off the silk, throwing, scouring, dyeing 
and weaving. 

The good cocoons are fuzzy oval balls, about the size of pigeon eggs, 
containing a long continuous thread of fiber, and the body of the dead worm. 
The fuzz or "floss" is a rough impure silk, which is taken off as "waste." 
This done the problem is to reel off the fiber without breaking it, and by 
combing a number of fibers together into a stronger thread, to make the 
" raw silk " of commerce. This makes the reeled silk goods. Here we 
must distinguish between the reel silk and the spun silk manufactures. 
The former embraces the operations peculiar to silk, dealing as they do 
with continuous fibers of great length; whereas in the spun silk industry 
the raw material is treated by methods similar to those of cotton and wool. 
It is only injured and unreelable cocoons, the husks of reeled cocoons, 
and other waste from reeling which are treated by the spun silk 
processes, and the silk produced in this manner loses much of its 
beauty and brilliance, qualities which are characteristic of reeled 
silk. Previous to the modern improvements in spinning machinery, 
the floss and all damaged and unreelable cocoons, were almost worth- 
less. Now, however, all are carded and spun into yarn like wool and 
cotton, and made into " spun silk" fabrics, not so lustrous as reeled silk 
fabrics, but much cheaper. The waste from the manufacture of spun silk is, 
in turn, left as a rough furry yarn, called noil, which is woven into those 
fabrics sold by upholsterers for portieres and furniture coverings. Each of 
these classes of silk have their own usefulness, and now there is almost no 
waste in silk cocoons. 

Reeling. — The object of reeling is to bring together the filaments of 2 
or more (generally 4 or 5, but sometimes up to 20 — according to the size of 
thread to be made) cocoons, and to form them into one continuous, uniform 
and regular strand, which constitutes the " raw silk " of commerce. In 
reeling the operative has before her — 'for this is mostly women's work — a 
vessel of water, kept so heated as to dissolve the gum with which the silk 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 325 

worm has stuck the thread together to make the cocoon. A score or so of 
cocoons are thrown into the kettle, and as the gum softens, a whisk broom 
with which the woman gently .stirs the cocoons, presently detaches the end 
of the silk worm's thread. She attaches together several ends, and fastens 
them to a reel, which consists of a light 6-armed wooden frame worked with 
a treadle. As the reel revolves the fiber from each cocoon is rapidly 
unwound. Five " ends " make the usual thickness of " raw silk." Reeling, 
though properly a process of manufacture, is done mostly in connection 
with silk-growing. Commerce makes a distinction in price between country 
silk and filature silk, which is reeled at factories; for professional work is 
always better than amateur, and poor reeling is costly to the weaver in the 
end. Manufacturers in this country use mostly silk of the best reeling, as 
our high-speed machines require the most even thread. Chinese and 
Japanese silk is mostly "country "reeled, and is consequently not so smooth 
and free from knots and bunches as the filature-reeled Italian silk. The 
raw silk from the two former countries is technically termed re-reel silk, 
and usually fetches from 20 to 50 cents per pound less than filature. Fila- 
tures are generally used for making warps, and re-reels for wefts. Italian 
raw silk runs one unvaried tint throughout the whole bale, every skein 
matching all others perfectly. In Japanese and Chinese hand-reeled silk 
the color is not uniform, having a streaky appearance caused by using 
multi-colored cocoons in the same kettle. Filature silk is also free from 
nibs and knots, while re-reels are full of small rough places. These inter- 
fere greatly when it comes to be thrown, and also in weaving. France 
takes the greater portion of Italy's filature silk, which in part accounts for 
the excellence of her fine fabrics. The average prices of these two classes 
of silk for 1890-91 are as follows: 

French Filature, Cevennes $4 50 

Italian Filature, Extra classical 4 20 

Italian Filature, Classical 4 00 

Italian Filature, No. 1 3 90 

Italian Filature, No. 2 3 80 

China Filature, extra classical 4 00 

China Filature, No. 1 3 80 

China Filature, No. 2 _ 3 60 

Japan Filature, Extra classical ., 4 10 

Japan Filature, No. 1 4 00 

Japan Filature, No. li 3 80 

Japan Filature, No. 2 3 60 

Japan Ee-reel, No. 1 3 90 

Japan Ee-reel, No. li 3 80 

Japan Re-reel, No. 2 3 60 

Japan Re-reel (Kakedas), No. 1 , 3 60 

Japan Re-reel (Kakedas), No. 2 3 50 

Japan Re-reel (Kakedas), No. 3 3 40 

China Re-reel, No. 1 3 00 

China Re-reel, No. 2 2 90 

China Re-reel, No. 3 2 80 

China Re-reel, Common 2 60 

Canton Re-reel, No. 1 2 90 

Canton Re-reel, No. 2 2 80 

Canton Re-reel, No. 3 2 70 

Raw silk pays a freight of § l / 2 cents per pound from Asiatic ports to 
New York City, over the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The freight via San 



V 



326 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

Francisco is 8 cents per pound. The ocean freight on raw silk from France 
and Italy to New York is 4 cents. The raw silk which is used in our facto- 
ries is drawn wholly from foreign sources, the domestic output being too 
small to have any influence whatever. Italy, France, China and Japan are 
the principal sources of supply. Our imports of raw silk, in pounds, from 
1886 to 1891, inclusive, with average price per pound for each year, were as 
follows: 

Total. Yalue. 

1886 ...4,754,626 $3 62 

1887... 4,599,574 4 96 

1888 5,175,920 3 89 

1889 ..5,329,646 3 48 

1890 ....5,943,360 3 92 

1891 5,240,841 3 67 

The following table gives the average value per pound of the raw silk 
imported from four countries for five years: 

China. France. Italy. Japan. 

1886 $3 00 $4 38 $4 36 $3 66 

1887 3 42 4 84 4 59 4 05 

1888. 3 10 4 33 4 33 3 74 

1889 3 23 3 90 4 00 3 34 

1890... 3 29 4 69 4 82 3 84 

Our receipts in pounds from the same countries for the years 1887 to 
1890 were as under: 

Japan. China. Italy. France. 

1887 ..2,165,329 1,076,280 1,005,812 276,633 

1888 2,800,402 1,016,945 958,816 

1889... 2,738,423 1,118,807 1,091,871 

1890 3,459,569 1,130,491 911,175 279,488 

Throwing. — Raw silk, being still too fine and delicate for ordinary use, 
undergoes a series of operations called throwing, the object of which is to 
twist and double it into more substantial yarn. According to the quality of 
raw silk used and the throwing operations undergone, the principal classes 
of thrown silk are: (1) Tram or weft thread, consisting of two or three 
strands of raw silk not twisted before doubling and only lightly spun (this 
is soft, flossy and comparatively weak); (2) Organzine, the thread used for 
warps, made from two twisted strands spun in the contrary direction to that 
in which they are separately twisted; (3) Singles, which consist of a sin- 
gle strand of hard-twisted raw silk, made up of the filaments of eight to ten 
cocoons (this is always quoted under the head of organzine). The average 
prices per pound paid for these two classes of thrown silk for the years 
1890-91, are as follows: 

French and Italian Organzine $5 15 

Japan Organzine 5 00 

China Organzine 4 85 

French and Italian Trams.. 4 75 

Japan Trams 4 60 

China Trams.... 4 70 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 327 

Scouring. —Up to this time the silk fiber continues to be lustreless, 
stiff, and harsh, from the coating of gum on its surface. The removal of 
this gum is performed by the operation of boiling-off or scouring. To boil 
off, say 300 pounds of thrown silk, about 60 pounds of white soap is shred 
and dissolved in 200 gallons of pure water, at a heat of 195 degrees. In 
this the hanks of silk are immersed, being continually turned around so as 
to expose all portions equally to the solvent influence of the hot solution. 
For some purposes — making gauze, crape, etc. — the silk is not scoured; 
and for dyeing certain colors, half -scouring is. practiced. The perfect scour- 
ing of French silks removes 25 per cent, of their weight, while China silks 
lose 30 per cent. Silks to be finished white are bleached by exposure in a 
closed room to the fumes of burning sulphur, and afterward washed in pure 
cold water to remove all traces of the sulphur. 

Spun Silk. — Fabrics made of silk are of two kinds, according as they 
are made of reeled or spun silk. In working the latter there is no attempt 
made to use the continuous thread as spun by the silk worm within the 
cocoon, but the cocoon is treated as a bundle of fibers, and spun like wool 
or cotton. The cocoons for this purpose are imported in bales, largely 
from Lyons, the centre of the European silk commerce, and from China 
and India. The cocoons on arrival are picked over, freed from adhering 
dirt, and assorted with regard to color. They are then ready for the first 
process in the spun-silk industry — the freeing of the silk fiber from the gum 
with which the silk worm has glued it together to make its cocoon, and the 
loosening of the fiber itself. This is done by boiling in soap-water. They 
are then rinsed in clear water, dried by steam, and exposed to free air in 
great drying-rooms. They emerge no longer cocoons, but puffy little balls 
ready to be beaten out into sheets of fiber something like cotton batting. 
These sheets of silken batting, formed not only of pierced and inferior co- 
coons, but also of the "waste" from throwing processes and all other stages 
through which the reeled silk has passed, are next food for combing or 
carding machines. There are several patterns or varieties of these ma- 
chines, all serving the same purpose of combing and cleaning the fiber, 
much as one combs out his hair. In the first combing the largest and 
strongest fibers, called the first "draft," left on the cards are used for the 
finest goods; the waste left on the cards becomes food for the next combing 
machine. The poorer fiber goes through 4 or 5 machines, until the possi- 
bilities of the material is exhausted. The last fiber that can be used is 
roughly spun into the irregular noil yarn, which is the material composing 
the lustreless "raw silk" goods, so called, of the upholsterer, a fabric which 
frequently defies an expert to determine whether of cotton or silk. The 
spun silk, after passing through 16 or 18 machines from its original shape 
in the cocoon, is now in a yarn, or thread, corresponding to the "reeled" 
silk as it is ready for the weaver. The finished yarn is often very lumpy 
and requires severe improving. A curious process sometimes used is the 
"gassing" or singeing, in which the yarn is run continuously through a gas 



328 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

flame at a speed carefully regulated so that the flame shall burn off the 
loose filaments and clean up the fiber without burning the body of the 
thread itself. If the thread slackens, a clever device called a guide-wire 
instantly turns off the flames. The last machine, the "reeler," delivers the 
thread upon a reel, which permits the making of skeins, in which shape all 
the dyeing, except for piece-dyed or printed silks, is done. Printed silk is 
made in much the same fashion as calico. When the figure is white upon 
a dark ground the silk is bleached, then run between rollers that print the 
ground, leaving the figure blank. Colored figures on white or light grounds 
simply reverse the process. Complex patterns, employing many colors, 
have a separate roller and printing for each tint. 

Dyeing, Adulterating and Tests for Silk. — Next to wool, silk is 
the easiest fiber to dye. In fact it runs riot in the whole gamut of color. 
The aniline dyes evolved by German chemists from coal tar give many 
of the most delightful tints. For the rest there is madder and Brazil 
wood, tumeric, and cochineal, saffron, indigo, logwood, fustic, Prussian blue, 
and many more. There is no shade, no tint, no cloud of color applied to 
any known fiber but may be caught and repeated upon silk. Dyeing is 
always a hand process, as the color of a dyer's hand suggests, and here 
machinery does not attempt to interfere. Long wooden troughs fill the 
sloppy and steamy room, into which the great skeins of silk yarn are dipped 
by parti-colored human beings, who move them to and fro to make sure all 
parts of the skein are touched by the dyeing fluid. There is good dyeing 
and bad dyeing, honest dyeing and false dyeing, and a silk maker inspired 
with intent to deceive can make his yarn take 300 per cent of extra weight 
by the use of heavy chemicals in the dye-trough. Silk, we have seen, loses 
about one-fourth of its weight in scouring. To make up for this loss, it has 
long been the practice to dye dark-colored silks "in the gum," the dye com- 
bining in these cases with the gum or gelatinous coating. Such silks are 
known as souples. Both in the gum and in the scoured state, silk has the 
peculiar property of absorbing heavy dye-matters, though remaining to 
outward appearances undiminished in strength and lustre, but much added 
to in weight and thickness. Silk in the gum, it is found, absorbs these 
heavy dyes more freely than the scoured; so to use it for weighting there 
are these great inducements — a saving of the costly and tedious scouring; a 
saving of the 25 per cent weight which would have been lost; and a sur- 
face on which much greater deception can be practiced. In dyeing silk 
black, a certain amount of weight must be added; and the common practice 
in former times was to make up on the silk the 25 per cent that was lost in 
scouring. Up to 1857, the utmost the dyer could add was "weight for 
weight," but an accidental discovery in that year put dyers in the way of 
using tin salts and nitrate of iron in "weighting," with the result that they 
can now add 40 ounces per pound to scoured silk, 120 ounces per pound to 
souples, and 150 ounces per pound to spun silks, and yet these compounds 
are called silk. The use of different chemicals enables dyers to weight all 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 329 

colors the same as black. The apparent lustre of the fabrics is preserved 
because the silk fiber absorbs the heavy chemicals to a degree truly wonder- 
ful, and there is a semblance of silk with a good "body" that attracts cus- 
tomers. Very brief wear reveals the deception. It will crack and grow 
rusty in a night. The cohesiveness, the elaaticity, and the real strength of 
the fiber are greatly reduced. As a further evidence the goods have be- 
come highly combustible, and, when burned with a match, fail to give the 
usual odor of animal matter by which good silk is so readily recognized. 
This manner of dyeing accounts for some of the cheapness as well as the 
bad wear of certain foreign fabrics which look as well at first sight as 
goods at a much higher price. Some of the foreign black dress silks are so 
highly "loaded" with nitrate of iron as to give color to the belief in "spon- 
taneous combustion" of silk, which caused the steamship companies in 
1879 to refuse to freight the heavier foreign silks. The carbon of the silk 
and the nitrate make a compound closely parallel to gunpowder, which is 
simply cotton fabric soaked with nitric acid. The silk mills of the United 
States manufacture the finest and most honest fabrics in the world, and 
challenge consumers to test the purity of their silks, which can be done by 
raveling out the threads. If heavily loaded, they will be sure to break 
easily, feel rough to the touch because of the particles of dye, taste inky to 
the tongue, and burn smoulderingly into a yellow, greasy ash, instead of 
crisply into almost nothing. 

After dyeing, the huge skeins are washed and dried, and are now ready 
for the process of weaving. Like all fabrics, woven silk is composed of a 
series of continuous threads lengthwise in the piece, called the warp, and 
of cross-threads woven in and out of the warp according to the pattern of 
cloth, called the weft, or filling. As previously stated, warp yarn is first 
spun, then doubled, then close-twisted, and is called "organzine;" weft yarn 
is first doubled, then spun, is but slightly twisted, and is called "tram." The 
first process of the weaving must be to get the warp, and the weaver gives 
word that he wants a warp 250 yards long, and of 3,000 to 6,000 "ends" or 
threads, which last number would make a very wide piece of goods. The 
original bolts of silk as they come off the loom are usually about 200 to 225 
yards in length. In a good gros grain dress silk there are about 4,800 warp 
threads lying side by side in the width of the fabric, being 240 to the inch. 
(In the best standard calico there are 64 to the inch.) The Jacquard loom, 
with its marvelous power of producing infinite detail of figure, is the ma- 
chine upon which all American silks are woven. It will be found described 
under the head of Jacquard. The invention of this simple improvement 
in the year 1800 won for Jacquard a bronze medal, the notice of Napoleon, 
and a pension of 1,000 crowns. Besides the varieties of pattern made by the 
arrangements of the harness-frames, which includes the difference between 
silk and satin, there are other means of varying goods. In satin the warp 
is thrown mostly to the upper surface, and as the silk warp is the most 
lustrous, the satiny effect is produced. Grenadine is produced by thread- 



330 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

ing the warp only into alternate eyelets in the reed and harness, and by 
feeding the weft slowly, so that a mesh is formed. Stripes, if in the length 
are made by warp threads of different colors; if in the width, by feeding 
the weft from shuttles carrying different colors of thread, each of which, by 
an automatic device, is lifted into position to be thrown at the proper 
moment. Gros grain is made by plain weaving, the woof being of a 
thickness to correspond with the rib or grain. Bedford cords, Ottomans, 
and Faille are made in the same manner — a heavy thread of weft making 
the rib across the goods. Foulard is simply the general name for plain- 
woven silks not dyed in the yarn. After silk cloth is woven it is taken 
from the loom for finishing. This a is considerable business in itself. Two of 
the preliminary processes are gassing and burling. Gassing is a repetition 
of the process used for the yarn, viz., the passing quickly in contact with a 
light flame, which burns off any stray filaments without injury to the fabric. 
In burling, the fabric is unwound from one roller and wound at a short dis- 
tance away upon another, the quick eye of a woman being on the alert to 
catch any knots or "burls" in the silk, which she removes with a pair of 
tweezers. The fabric is then calendered or "glossed" by being run be- 
tween copper rollers, after which it is folded in \% yard lengths and is 
ready for the packer. In some kinds of finishing the silk is subjected to a 
steam spray of gum and shellac, which improves its luster; and foreign 
silk is sometimes refinished in this way by American finishers. If, how- 
ever, the material is not yarn-dyed, it must go from the loom to the dye 
shop, or to the printing-press. Silk, like calico, is printed on a stout up- 
right press, having a roller for each color that is to be used. On this 
roller, which is of copper, is cut the portion of the pattern to be printed in 
this color, and when the silk carried around a great cylinder in the center, 
has been pressed in turn against each of these rollers, the pattern is com- 
plete. In either case it must be washed, dried and calendered before it is 
ready to sell. 

Velvet is made in two ways, that of the finest grade being woven by 
looping the warp threads over fine wires, which give by their size any de- 
sired length of pile. When the weaver has made a few inches of web, re- 
quiring several hundred of these wires he stops the loom and with deft 
hand runs a keen knife along each of these wires, guided by a fine groove 
in its upper surface. The other system is that made possible by the 
power loom for the production of pile fabrics. In this two cloths are 
really woven together the pile binding the two, until a blade working like a 
knife or sickle cuts them apart. Velvets must be carefully looked over to 
obviate imperfections, and are then ironed, brushed, and if necessary, 
sheared to the finest possible degree of evenness. Watered silks and 
moire antiques are now made by the pressure of hot rollers upon the 
parts showing the "water lines" — a method which has superseded the old 
hand process of scraping down or hammering in the lines. Brocades 
are simply figured goods, the figure being produced by throwing the warp 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 331 

or the weft thread to the top in the Jacquard weaving. The cost of putting 
a brocade figure to a plain background varies greatly with the material used 
for the brocade, the number of colors used in the figure, and the elabora- 
tion of the pattern. The simplest brocaded figure can be added to a piece 
of silk at a cost of about 15 cents a yard; and it may add ten times that 
sum to the cost of a yard if it be an elaborate all-over design. 

Half-silk Goods. — By this term is meant fabrics which are made partly 
of silk and partly of cotton; sometimes the warp is of cotton and the weft 
of silk, or the reverse may be the case. It is obvious that these fabrics 
cannot have the same luster as whole silk fabrics, and the aim of finishers 
is to make them appear as lustrous as if made entirely of silk. After 
weaving, these goods are generally boiled off, and if required are then 
dyed and dried. In the condition this leaves them, the fibers of which they 
are composed are distinctly visible, the silk being lustrous, the cotton dull 
and heavy. The object of the finisher is to give the whole a similar ap- 
pearance by imparting a gloss to the cotton, and in this silk-finishers have 
been successful, for they make half-silk goods look as if they were com- 
posed entirely of silk. Two kinds of finish are distinguished in the trade: 
one, known as "atlas," is finished or is bright on one side only; the other, 
called the "ottoman" finish, is bright on both sides. To obtain either of 
these results a finishing agent is first applied to the goods, and they are 
then dried and as a general thing calendered. The materials used for the 
finishing are gum tragacanth and glue, of the purest and palest quality. 
For the "atlas" finish the fabric is wound on a roller as free from creases 
and wrinkles as possible, and the face of the goods filled with the com- 
position of glue and gum. This is applied by means of a roller. The 
fabric is then dried, and afterwards calendered just enough to give them 
the required gloss. It will now be stiff, especially if a large proportion of 
glue has been used on them. In order to soften them they are steamed by 
passing through a fan-steaming arrangement, which does not destroy the 
gloss, while it gives the fabric a softer and more pliable feel. For the 
"ottoman" finish the goods are treated on both sides as in the case of the 
atlas finish. The stiffness of the finished goods will depend upon the rela- 
tive proportions of glue and gum tragacanth in the stiffening mixture, glue 
giving a hard feel and gum a softer. Zinc sulphate is always added to 
prevent the growth of mildew in the finished goods on keeping. The lus- 
ter so produced will remain until fabric is washed. A large proportion of 
medium-priced silks are filled with cotton or with jute, more especially 
the cheap corded goods. 

Some all-silk fabrics sell for $1 a yard, others sell for $5, on account of 
two things — the quality of the silk thread, and the amount of it. The raw 
silk, as it comes from the cocoons, is of very different kinds. Some of it 
is long and even and smooth, while inferior qualities are rough and brittle, 
and in short lengths. The poor qualities do not stand wear as well as the 
best ones do, and, not being worth so much money, are utilized for the 



332 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

cheaper grades of silk fabrics. The long, glossy threads go into the best 
silks, and because in these beauty is sought before cheapness; a greater 
amount of silk is put into a yard — that is, the silk is heavier. 

Although there is an abundance of durable, inexpensive silk in the 
markets of the United States, there is also, at the same time, plenty of 
shining cloth which, when purchased, turns out a reproach and a shame 
upon ordinary judgment in the investment of money. As a general rule, 
it may said that the softest silks are the best silks — that is, silks possessing 
a softness combined with weight, which feel as if they had no stiffening in 
them. By twisting a piece of silk around the finger a buyer can tell some- 
thing about it. If it smoothes out without creases, it will wear well. By 
touching a match to a thread, it can be ascertained if there is cotton in it. 
If it is all silk, it will burn with difficulty; if there is cotton in it, it will 
light readily. Good silk is strong, and when it breaks it will fly into many 
little ends. Pure silk does not stiffen when wetted and dried ; and, if black, 
the dye should have a slight tinge of green when the light is seen through 
it. Stiff silks do not wear well, as they cannot be pure. The inexperienced 
buyer of silk should be wary of the bargain that can "stand alone." The 
lower the price of a heavy silk the more likely it is to be of shimmered 
cotton, or to be weighted with dyestuffs ; hence the only wonder is that it 
will bend at all. If silk be crushed together in the hand, and suddenly 
released, it should spring out quickly, leaving but little crease. This spring 
iscaled the verve, of which poor silks have little or none; those adulterated 
with jute are also deficient in this characteristic. Buyers should look to it 
that the silk is not piece-dyed. However good the quality, the garment, upon 
very brief wear, soon collapses into matted limpness. The " dipped" silk 
may be easily detected by a brackish stiffness, and by a "flat-iron shine," that 
a careless inspector mistakes for a gloss. Cheap China and Japanese silks 
are filled with jute. Silk of any description can be identified in a mixture 
with any other fiber, animal or vegetable, by means of concentrated hydro- 
chloric acid, which dissolves it immediately and completely, without appre- 
ciably affecting any woolen or vegetable fiber with which the silk may have 
been interwoven. Silk is also dissolved by cold nitric acid, which does not 
affect wool. A common test is to rub one corner of a piece of silk, as 
though washing it. After this operation, if the silk be good, it will, on being 
brushed out, look as smooth as ever; and if, on holding it up to the light 
and looking through it, no trace of the rubbing is discernible, be sure the 
silk is good. [See Linen, Fibers.] 

Pure silk is practically indestructible, though wearers of silk dresses 
may not think so. The reason, however, is that even in garments made up 
of pure silk, the dyeing affects its wearing qualities. A prominent silk 
manufacturer is authority for the statement that if one would get a heavy, 
undyed silk dress, it would last forever. To prove this theory, a story is 
told to the effect that some years ago a silk mill was robbed of a large 
quantity of raw silk. The thieves set fire to the mill, in order to conceal 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 333 

their work, but the fire was extinguished in time to reveal the robbery of 
several barrels of silk that had just been skeined. Search was made for ■ 
the missing silk, but it was not found until eight years afterward, when, by 
accident, it was discovered buried some distance from the old mill. The 
barrels and the hoops had been completely rotted by this long burial, but 
the silk remained in such perfect condition that it was made into sewing 
silk. The silk remained smooth, even and strong, showing that even this 
harsh treatment had not injured its qualities. Pure silk of any description 
is an agreeable and healthy material. Used in dress, it retains the electric- 
ity of the body; in the drapery of rooms and furniture-covers it reflects the 
sunbeams, giving them a quicker brilliancy, and it heightens colors with a 
charming light. It possesses an element of cheerfulness, of which the dull 
surface of 'wool and linen are destitute. It also promotes cleanliness, will 
not readily gather dirt, and does not harbor vermin as kindly as wool does. 
Its continually growing use, accordingly, is beneficial in many ways. Grace 
and beauty, even, owe something to silk. The more silk ribbons, the more 
silk kerchiefs and robes are used — instead of linen and wool — the more 
graceful becomes the outward aspect of mankind. The fluttering of rib- 
bon, the rustling and flowing skirts of silk, the kerchief knotted loosely 
around the neck, have materially contributed to make the prevailing cus- 
toms more natural and pleasing to the eye. * , 

Silk Mantifacture in the United States. — Of all the manufacturing 
industries of which the United States is so justly proud, not one stands 
more conspicuous for its success than silk, though it came into the field 
with great tardiness and caution. The truth is, native capital rather trem- 
bled at the thought of putting itself in competition with the Old World fac- 
tories whose looms had a skill derived from 1000 years' experience. And 
yet, at the present day, our industry in the 50th year of its factory life ^ 
stands second among the nations of the earth in point of production. We 
have beaten the Orient, we have beaten Switzerland, Germany, England, 
every European nation, except France; and we are approaching her with 
rapid strides. Although the silk manufacture is comparatively a new 
industry, yet we are now able to compete with all foreign productions in 
the medium grades to completely control our home market. In the very 
high grades, the older nations have the advantage of skilled hand-loom 
weavers, schools of design, and long established methods of printing and 
dyeing, which enables them to dictate to the fashionable world new styles 
and fancies. In the lowest grade of silk fabrics China and Japan have the 
advantage of cheap labor. It has taken years to dispel the old-time preju- 
dice against American silks. Their intrinsic merit, however, has forced 
the American public to recognize their superiority, particularly in the qual- 
ity of durability, and as the great majority of buyers purchase such goods 
for service, and not for idle show, the American silks, after a protracted 
up-hill fight, have obtained their place among the standard staples of the 
United States. In 1891 the value of our manufactures of silk was 



334 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

$60,000,000; the value of French manufactures was a trifle over $100,000,000. 
It is very probable that the next ten years will make the United States the 
equal of France in the production of silk fabrics. However, it cannot be 
denied that France must be for many years to come the leading silk manu- 
facturing nation of the world, and the great producer of fine goods. With 
such a rival, it is certainly a matter of no little pride to Americans that we 
have been able so far to develop a home industry that can now supply the 
demand for all but the very finest and the very cheapest grades of goods. 
It is from advantages derived from improved machinery for increased pro- 
ductiveness that the present position of the American silk industry is largely 
due. It has enabled our manufacturers to take the entire home market for 
certain styles of silk fabrics from the Swiss, the French, and other foreign 
competitors who previously supplied us with staple goods. In European 
factories, the speed of spindles ranges from 2,500 to 4,000 revolutions per 
minute. In the mills of this country the spindles perform from 12,000 to 
15,000 revolutions a minute. These spindles save labor on a vast scale by 
various deft and unique automatic contrivances and attachments. An- 
other great labor-saver is the American belt-spinner, which obviates the 
necessity of many bands or small belts, the one large belt touching all the 
flanges of the spindles and turning them uniformly. So different, indeed, 
is the American machinery from the foreign, that when a weaver or spinner 
from over the seas enters an American mill he is dumbfounded, and does 
not know what this and that piece of splendid machinery with its light- 
ning-like movement is. To enter nearly any silk mill in this country, even 
the inexperienced eye is at once struck by the economy of space, by the 
complete utilization of time, the perfect division of labor, and the conse- 
quent harmony of movement among machines and operatives. So great 
has been the improvement in machinery since the industry was started in 
this country that it is stated at the present time one operative will spin 
more silk and do it much better than 2,000 could half a century ago; the 
room occupied would be only one four-hundredth part as much, and the 
cost of the machinery about one-twentieth. In 1891 there were 584 estab- 
lishments engaged in one branch or another of the silk industry, employ- 
ing 55,000 hands, and producing $60,000,000 worth of goods. These estab- 
lishments were distributed as follows: New Jersey, 157; New York, 263; 
Pennsylvania, 64; Connecticut, 43; Massachusetts, 24; Illinois, 10; Califor- 
nia, 6; Rhode Island, 5; Maryland, 4; Virginia, 2, and 1 each in Louisiana, 
Maine, North Carolina and Tennessee. In the neighborhood of Paterson, 
N. J., alone, there are 82 factories manufacturing silks, 16 dye houses, 2 silk- 
finishing establishments, 5 making silk braid, 1 silk-spinning factory and 12 
silk-throwing firms, while there are 23 firms engaged in making silk machin- 
ery for use in Paterson and other silk centers. These mills employ 25,000 
hands and turn out annually about $39,000,000 worth of silken goods. The 
year 1882 showed the largest imports of silk into this country. The annexed 
table is interesting as showing the total consumption of silks in the United 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 335 

States as well as the steady progress made by our domestic looms since 

1882: 

CONSUMPTION OF SILKS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Domestic Silks. Foreign Silks. 
Duty Added. 

1882 $35,102,020 $57,951,051 

1883 37,214,290 48,357,854 

1884 34,444,770 46,786,392 

1885 36,893,662 35,231,115 

1886. 54,941,026 41,732,395 

1887 _ 56,429,185 46,093,315 

1888 57,288,422 47,906,137 

1889 58,668,780 50,645,574 

1890 42,631,105 57,773.245 

1891 60,000,000 56,842,093 

Silk Manufacture in France. — The total production of manufactured 
silk in the world per annum is estimated at a value of $325,000,000, and of 
this at least $100,000,000 is produced in France. About one-eighth of the 
raw silk is native grown, the remainder being imported from Italy and the 
East. Switzerland and Germany are serious rivals in point of yards manu- 
factured, but in quality the taste and skill of the French will long main- 
tain supremacy. France and Switzerland each import vast quantities of 
India and China light goods, known as pongees, corahs and tussahs. 
These goods are all imported in an unfinished state, and after being dyed 
and printed at Lyons, are reshipped, chiefly to the United States and 
England. Of the total quantity of silk manufactures produced in France, 
the city of Lyons contributes over one half. The industry was introduced 
into this city in 1466, by Louis, XI, and in order to give it fitting encourage- 
ment he decreed that the city should pay for the looms out of its treasury, 
and that the workmen should be exempt from the payment of duties and 
taxes for the space of twelve years. The experiment, however, did not 
meet with conspicuous success. In fact, it was a partial failure, notwith- 
standing the great demand for silken goods, and would probably have 
died a peaceful death but for the energetic measures taken for its preser- 
vation by Francis I immediately on his succession to the throne. This 
monarch was a friend to art in every form, and he was besides eminently 
patriotic. It seemed a monstrous thing to him that the French manufac- 
ture should waste away in its infancy ; and recognizing that all that was 
wanted to make it thrive was good nourishment of a pecuniary and 
encouraging sort, he at once increased the privileges granted by Louis, 
and held out the most tempting baits in his power to the foreign silk- 
makers — such as would be sufficient to cause a never-ceasing tide of immi- 
gration into the country which should be bold enough to offer them even 
nowadays. By an edict of December 2, 1536, silk weavers were to pay no 
taxes, were to be allowed house-rent gratis, were to be non-amenable to 
imprisonment for debt, and were to be licensed to carry swords — the last a 
liberty allowed generally only to those who were of noble blood. Men 



336 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIL 

were not slow to avail themselves of these magnificent offers. First came 
two Genoa manufacturers, Steven Turqueti and Bart. Nariz, who brought 
with them workers from their native place, and who quickly amassed con- 
siderable fortunes. Others lured by the privileges and by the success of 
Turqueti and Nariz, followed in their wake, and soon a perfect stream of 
skilled Italians began to flow across the frontier, to acclimatize themselves, 
and, under the fostering care of successive kings and ministers, the French 
industry continued to advance to that pinnacle which, with one or two 
intervals, it has ever since occupied. The majority of the fine silks made 
at Lyons are woven by hand, and not by power looms, as many suppose. 
There are 100,000 of these hand looms at Lyons, all owned by individual 
workmen. There are factories using power looms but these are located in 
the surrounding country where water-power can be had and labor employed 
at the lowest possible rates. As a rule, however, the Lyons "manufacturer" 
has no factory. He has an office and a warehouse combined. He buys 
the raw silk, designs the patterns, and delivers materials and designs to 
the weavers, to be woven at the lowest price per meter he can get the work 
done for, all incidental expenses being paid by the weaver. The weaver 
delivers the woven fabrics to the warehouse or the finisher. The manufac- 
turer, nine times out of ten, has sold th£m in advance, which he can do, as 
he knows the exact cost before the goods are made. It is absolutely neces- 
to have a good light to make fine silk goods, hence the tenements which 
the weavers occupy are built on a hill or its sloping sides. Some of these 
immense tenement houses are occupied by as many as forty families. 
Three rooms are all that one family rent, and one of these is taken up 
with the ponderous wooden loom. Often the entire family assist in the 
work. The wages paid the hand weavers and factory operatives in and 
around Lyons are low as compared with those paid in some other countries 
for similar work, but the French workman can live more cheaply in many 
ways, is satisfied with lighter and less substantial clothing than the opera- 
tive in a colder and less genial climate. Under exceptionably favorable 
circumstances, when employed on fine figured stuffs, and working long 
hours, a weaver can earn $20 a week. From this must be deducted inci- 
dental expenses, as he supplies his own loom and pays rent. The average 
weekly wages earned range from $7 to $10 a week, while the women earn 
from 60 to 75 cents a day. 

The silk industry of England is not like that of France and the United 
States, confined within one or more districts which can rightfully be called 
the silk center of the country. Coventry and Spitalfields have lost to a 
certain extent, the predominance as silk manufacturing centers, although 
the industry still exists there in a feeble way. England which in 1860 im- 
ported $240,000,000 worth of raw silk, now imports but $22,000,000 worth, 
annually. With the exception of the manufacturers depending on spun silks, 
all the centers of trade have for many years been in a depressed condition. 
Thus in twelve years the number of looms was reduced from 150,000 to 



SIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 337 

65,000, of which 12,500 were power looms. Spitalfields, which in his best 
days kept 24,000 hand looms at works has now but 1100. The introduction 
of the factory system and extension of powers loom weaving in the United 
States, have assisted materially in crushing out the English domestic in- 
dustry. China, Japan and India are the greatest cheap-silk producing 
countries in the world. The question is often asked how silks in such large 
quantities can be imported from these far-off countries and compete with 
our domestic manufacturers after paying heavy import duties. The reason 
is easily explained. In China, Japan and India silks are made by hand. 
This alone gives them great superiority over domestic power-woven goods. 
They are made by weavers who are content to work for from 15 to 25 cents 
a day as wages. Moreover, these silks are made from yarn while in the 
raw state (in the gum), the fabric being boiled after its manufacture. This 
imparts to it a fineness, a luster, and a delicacy of texture not possessed 
by silks of machine manufacture. All this might be done by this country, 
but in the first place it would be too expensive, as labor is high here, and in 
next place silk yarn cannot be manufactured into silk by power looms until 
it has been boiled. Power looms also require yarn for weaving of an exact 
and uniform size; and boiling previous to weaving necessitates the produc- 
tion of artificial luster by calendering, which is never so beautiful or 
durable as that possessed by the natural silk. Hence this country will al- 
ways have to depend upon the East for those lustrous, light weight, hand- 
wrought fabrics known in trade under the general term of China silks. It 
is true we can imitate them as for weight, but that is as far as the resem- 
blance extends. It is not difficult for the veriest tyro to distinguish be- 
tween the imitation and the genuine. [See China Silk, Sewing Silk, 
Designing, Sponge Silk, Satin, Filature, Hank, Tram, Organzine, 
Loom, Jacquard, Weaving]. 

Singeing 1 , All fabrics when taken from the loom are covered with 
surface-hairs or fibrous down, which have been raised up during the pro- 
cess of weaving. Those fabrics which are to be printed with patterns, or 
whose surfaces are to be finished with a luster, are first submitted to the 
operation of singeing or gassing. The apparatus generally used for hot 
plate singeing consists of a furnace surmounted by a metal plate, which is 
sometimes ridged on its surfrce. The cloth is first brought in contact with 
brushes which raise the loose nap on the cloth; then it is passed over the 
heated metal plate at a rapid rate, and is again wound on a roller. This 
operation removes all the surplus nap without injuring the cloth. Gas 
singeing is accomplished by drawing the cloth through the brushes and 
over a horizontal pipe perforated with rows of small holes, so that the gas 
issuing therefrom burns as a narrow sheet of flame. Cotton goods are after- 
wards bleached and calendered; woolen goods being pressed, ironed and 
folded. [See Gassing.] 

Sizing 1 . Cotton is never woven in its natural state. It always receives 

22 



338 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SIZ 

a dressing or coating of some kind of liquid size which is allowed to dry- 
before the operation of weaving begins. The size usually consists of a pre- 
paration of wheat flour made into a thin paste. The early cotton weavers 
of this country found that the threads soon became injured and frayed 
by contact with the machinery; and the warps frail even at first, became so 
fragile by rubbing against reeds and shuttles that breakages became so fre- 
quent as to cause serious loss ef time, through stopping the loom to pick 
up and join anew the broken ends. This difficulty was in some measure 
remedied by rubbing the yarn with a mixture of paste and grease, the 
weaver leaving off now and again to dress a fresh length of yarn. After 
the establishment of the power-loom the inconvenience and loss were still 
felt, even to a greater degree, and several attempts were made to meet the 
difficulty, but without effect, until a dressing machine for preparing the 
whole length of warp before weaving was produced. The object of this 
machine is to apply the size in such quantity that it will diminish the rough- 
ness on the fibrous surface of the warp, and increase its strength, thereby 
facilitating the weaving. The yarns from several rollers are unwound and 
made to pass through the size and then between rollers which squeeze the 
glutinous composition into the very heart of the thread. Thence the yarn 
passes over drying cylinders, made of sheet iron and copper, heated within 
by steam. This quickly dries the size, and prepares the yarn to be wound 
upon the weaver's beam, a roller which receives uniform layers of warp 
from end to end. 

Skein. A fixed length of any thread or yarn of silk, cotton, linen or 
wool, doubled again and again and knotted to prevent tangling. 

Skirt. A woman's petticoat; that part of a woman's dress that hangs 
from the waist. A divided skirt is that style of dress recommended on 
hygenic grounds by the Jenness Millerites, in which the skirt resembles a 
pair of exceedingly loose trousers. [See Petticoat, Balmoral.] 

Smock. An under garment worn by women, corresponding to the 
shirt worn by men; a chemise; a shift. 

Smock-frock. A garment of coarse linen, resembling a short shirt in 
shape, worn by field-laborers over their other clothes; similar to the French 
blouse. The yoke of this garment is at its best elaborately shirred or 
puckered. 

Sock. [From L. soccus, a. kind of low-heeled shoe or buskin.] The 
socks of the early Anglo-Saxons were worn over the stocking, and within 
the shoe differing in nothing but material from those made at the present 
time. At present, a knitted or woven covering for the foot shorter than the 
stocking. Known in trade as half-kose. [See Hose, Appendix "A."] 

Spatterdask. A cloth covering for the ankle and leg, spreading out 
at the bottom over the shoe; also called spats and over gaiters. Spatter- 
dashes are worn by men to prevent their light trousers from being soiled 



SPI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 339 

by the blackening on their shoes and sometimes they are affected for style. 
In England they are worn when the weather is wet and occasionally for 
the sake of warmth when men 50 upon long drives. 

"Spick, span, new." A phrase first applied in England to cloth just 
taken off the spikes (hooks) and spannus (stretchers). 

Spinning'. The operation of drawing out raw fiber (after having been 
carded or combed) and twisting it into threads, either by the hand or 
machinery. Until about 250 years ago the rude method of spinning still 
employed in India and Egypt was the only one known in Europe or 
America. For 4,000 years the same simple instruments, worked in almost 
precisely the same manner, had been used without a thought of improve- 
ment. In 1620 an Englishman conceived the idea of the spinning wheel 
which then superseded distaff and spindle. The spinning wheel when 
first invented was the same in construction as it is to-day, consisting of a 
wheel, band and spindle, and driven either by hand or treadle. There 
were two kinds of spinning wheels in common use, the large wheel for spin- 
ning wool or cotton and the small wheel for spinning flax. By the spinning 
wheel only one thread could be produced at a time, and the most arduous 
toil could not reel off more than a pound in a day. After the introduction 
of cotton in England, and as the demand for cheap cotton fabrics in- 
creased, several efforts were made to facilitate the process of spinning 
yarns, and in 1767 James Hargreaves, a weaver of Blackburn, England, 
produced the spinning-jenny. The idea of the jenny first occurred to him 
from seeing a spinning wheel overturned upon the floor, where both the 
wheel and spindle continued to revolve. The spindle was thrown from a 
horizontal into an upright position, and the thought seems to have struck 
him that if a number of spindles were placed upright, and side by side, 
several threads might be spun at once. He contrived a frame with eight 
spindles, which would thus produce eight threads at one time. For a time 
he kept his invention a secret, and utilized it only for the production of 
yarn by himself and his family. But the fact soon being noised abroad, 
the shortsighted cry that increased production would restrict employment 
was raised. A mob broke into his house, destroyed his machine, and he 
suffered subsequently so much and such bitter persecution that he was 
compelled to leave the place. In 1770 a patent was procured for the 
jenny, but upon attempting afterwards to defend it against infringement it 
was found that Hargraves had, previous to this date, manufactured and 
openly sold similar machines, and in consequence the attorney engaged 
gave up the actions, despairing of procuring a verdict. Thus the invention 
was thrown open to the world, and became generally adopted without Har- 
graves deriving any material benefit from it; although he did not share the 
common lot of unfortunate inventors and die in poverty. The original 
jenny of eight spindles had been doubled in power by the time the patent 
was taken out; it quickly held from twenty to thirty spindles, and has even 



340 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. SPI 

been made with as many as 240. The spinning jenny was subsequently 
improved upon and largely superseded by Crompton's mule jenny. Prob- 
ably no inventive contrivance has been offered to the cotton trade more 
important than the mule. Samuel Crompton of Bolton, England, com- 
pleted in 1779 his invention of the mule jenny, in perfecting which he had 
been engaged several years. But this machine, possessing great merits 
and advantages, did not come into general use, nor was its value known, un- 
til after the expiration of Arkwright's patent for the spinning-frame. It is 
said Crompton's machine took its name from being a "cross" between the 
spinning jenny and the spinning frame, the mule jenny being in fact a com- 
pound of the spinning-frame and Hargraves spinning-jenny both in its 
structure and operation. Arkwright's spinning-frame was patented in 1769. 
At the present time there are two kinds of machines in use for spinning 
wool and cotton — throstles and mules. The throstle, which is an extension 
of Arkwright's original spinning-frame, is employed for spinning warps 
and sewing thread. It produces a yarn with a closer fiber and harder 
twist than that spun upon the mule, and also stronger and more even than 
mule yarn. Mule yarn is softer and more wooly in texture than throstle 
yarn, and can be spun much finer, because the tension is not so great. The 
mule-frame is also employed for spinning "woolen" yarns on the same 
principle of spinning fine counts of cotton yarn, while the throstle is used 
for spinning "worsted" yarns. Mule yarn is used for weaving muslins 
and the finest kinds of cotton goods. As 'it requires much less power to 
run the same number of mule spindles than throstles, the manufacturer 
spins every kind of yarn he possibly can upon the mule; but it will only 
produce the softest kind of thread. The yarn spun upon the (throstle has 
its fiber closer twisted than that spun upon the mule, and is more esteeemd 
for certain purposes, especially for making thread and "worsteds," than 
the latter. Throstle yarn is stronger and more even than mule yarn, and 
better adapted for warps; but the range is limited, the counts seldom ex- 
ceeding No. 40's, though throstles are made capable of spinning yarns up 
to 80's and 100's. The reason is that the fine thread has not the strength 
to stand the "drag" or tension required in the hard-twisting of the yarn on 
the bobbin. The mule on the other hand, will spin both warp and weft, 
and as high as No. 100's, or more, while still finer numbers can be spun by 
hand mules. [See Yarn, Hank.] 

Sponge Silk. A knitted fabric made from the waste or sweepings of 
silk. It is made out of the husks, the butts, and the odds and ends of 
everything left around the floor of a silk mill by way of wastes or shoddies. 
The knitted fabric or article looks very much like a rough crash or low 
grade of cotton toweling, only it is knitted and of very light weight. It is 
used for draperies and underwear, and also to wipe silverware and ma- 
chinery. 

Spool Cotton. See Thread. 



SPR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 341 

Sprig 1 . An ornament or pattern in the form of a sprig, or spray, or 
leaf, used to decorate plain-woven fabrics; as sprigged muslin. 

Stockinette. A knitted woolen fabric, usually ornamented with a fine 
ribbed pattern, similar in character to that seen in common knit goods. 
Stockinette is generally napped on one side, and handles soft, full and 
elastic, but lacks those valuable characteristics of strength and firmness of 
texture which obtain in a woven cloth. [See Eiderdown.] 

Stocking's. A close-fitting covering for the foot and lower leg. Stock- 
ings were formerly made of cloth or felt, and sewed together with seams. 
Queen Elizabeth was the first English sovereign to wear genuine knitted 
stockings, and as soon as the fashion had been inaugarated by royalty the 
ladies went wild over it. It is stated with evident surprise by historians of 
the time that the ladies "were not ashamed to wear hose of all kinds of 
changeable colors, as green, red, white, russet, tawny and else whatnot; 
commonly knit, and curiously indented in every point with quirks, clocks, 
open seams, and everything else accordingly." The early knitted stock- 
ings were of yarn, the fashion of knitting them of cotton not being intro- 
duced until 1730. Ribbed stockings were patented in 1759. Silk stock- 
ings were first made in England in 1575, knitted by Queen Elizabeth's 
silk woman, Mistress Montague, who presented Her Majesty with a pair 
of silk ones, which she liked so well that she kept the donor knitting silk 
stockings as long as she lived. Before the end of her reign "stockings 
were knitted of silk, yarnsey, worsted, crewel, and the finest yarn that could 
be had." Silk stockings were formerly regarded as extravagant and rep- 
rehensible, and so worn by men were regarded as an indication of luxur- 
ious habits; hence people who indulged these costly foot-coverings were 
termed the "silk stocking gentry," and a "silk stocking" was a person who 
belonged to the wealthy and luxurious class of society. In the year 1500, a 
literary society called de la calza (of the stocking), was formed in Venice, 
which lasted ninety years, and the members of which were distinguished by 
the color of their stockings, the prevailing tint of which was blue. After- 
wards the term came to be applied to a literary lady, or woman who delves 
inliterature. Until about 1860 black or dark cotton hosiery were worn only 
by orphan-house children, or by servants, and black silk stockings by 
ladies in mourning. For ordinary wear white stockings were universally 
worn, even to some extent as late as 1878, and white stockings are still 
worn by English women of all classes today, the cost and trouble of wash- 
ing notwithstanding. A "size" in hosiery is one-half inch in length of the 
foot. Ladies' stockings are sized 8,8^, 9,9^, 10; children's sizes range 
from 2>£ to 1%. The price of the latter usually varies with the size, unless 
sold "by the round." A "round" of hosiery signifies an equal quantity of 
each size, from the smallest to the largest. [See Hose, Hosiery, Pant- 
ella, Appendix "A."] 

Stocking 1 Yarn. Coarse, loosely spun yarn, used exclusively for knit- 



342 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. STU 

ting socks and stockings by country people, or by others whose occupation 
requires them to be out of doors in the winter time. 

Stuff. A term applied in England, and to some extent in the United 
States, to any woven textile, whether cotton, hair, silk, linen or wool; but 
more especially denoting those fabrics made of worsted, or long, combing 
wool, such as merinos, camlets, shalloons, and tammies. Stuffs are distin- 
guished from woolen cloths by the absence of any nap or pile, and having 
little or no tendency to shrink when damp, nor to felt in the process of weav- 
ing. Stuffs are woven either plain or twilled, with spots and designs of vari- 
ous kinds, but in all the thread is laid bare, the superfluous fibers of wool 
being singed off by means of a red-hot iron. After the operations of weav- 
ing and singeing, they are tightly rolled, soaked in hot water and boiled, 
fulled or milled, and the moisture pressed out between rollers. 

Sueda (su-da'). A term applied to gloves made of leather tanned on 
the wrong or flesh side; or if finished on the right side having, the thin, 
glossy outer grain shaved or peeled off, leaving an undressed surface. 
Sueda gloves are usually made of mocho or lambskin. [See Gloves.] 

Sumac. A product of the dried and ground leaves of the sumac bush. 
The liquid is extensiyely used for tanning light colored leather, and to 
some extent for dyeing fabrics. [See Leather.] 

Sunshade. A parasol, in particular a variety fashionable about 1850 
and later, the handle of which was hinged so that the opened top could be 
held in a vertical position between the face and the sun. [See Parasol, 
Umbrella.] 

Surah Silk (soo-rah). A variety of soft, fine-twilled dress goods, 
woven with a flat twill similar to serge in woolen goods. It bears a Hindoo 
name and is probably of Hindoo origin. 

Surplice. A variety of heavy, plain-woven, bleached linen, used in 
various portions of the dress of nuns and priests. [See Pelisse.] 

Surtout. [From Fr. sur. over and tout, all — over-all.] A man's over 
coat. In recent usage a coat cut like a frock coat with full skirts; a New 
Market. 

Suspenders. Several hundred years ago, the methods of keeping the 
trousers in place were exceedingly vexatious. Strings were attached to 
the coat aad similar ones to the tops of the breeches, and then tied together 
to unite the most important parts of the attire. The nobles and aristo- 
crats wore ribbons in place of strings, and in the reign of Charles I of 
England, a beau was almost a mass of silk ribbons. In the United States 
up to 1848 the masculine element were in the habit of keeping their 
trousers in position by means of strings made of muslin or ticking by the 
poor, and knitted galluses by the better-to-do. In 1848 suspenders of rub- 
ber webbing were first manufactured, since which time thev have entirely 
superseded the strings and ribbons of our forefathers. 



SWE COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 343 

Sweater. Avery thick cardigan jacket, made of extremely coarse 
yarn, and felted so much as to make it very warm, thick and comfortable 
for the coldest climate. 

Swiss. A variety of fine rrraslin, manufactured at Zurich and St. Gall, 
Switzerland for a long period before being made elsewhere in Europe, or 
in the United States. It is a thin transparent fabric, woven rather open and 
but slightly calendered, with simple patterns of dots, stripes or sprigs pro- 
duced in the loom. It is chiefly employed for summer dresses, quillings, 
flounces of petticoats, and for infants' wear. 

Swiss Embroidery. A variety of needlework in white on white, in 
washable materials, originated in Switzerland during the early part of this 
century. An imitation of this made by machinery, called Swiss flat stitch 
embroidery has to a great extent superseded the real hand and needle 
work. [See Embroidery.] 

Swivel. A minute shuttle, used in weaving small figures in silks and 
ribbons, and moved to and fro across the warps by slides, or by hand. 
These little swivels carry threads of various tints, used to obtain special 
effects in the shading of figures or flowers which are produced in the pat- 
tern of the fabric. Swivel silks are any of the ordinary weaves, such as 
faille, grenadine, satin, etc., in which are woven small figures by the swivel 
process. [See Loom.] 



T 

Tabaret (tab ' -a-ret.) A medium heavy silk fabric used for upholstery, 
distinguished by alternate stripes of watered and satin surface, generally 
in different colors. It resembles tabbinet, except that it is superior to it. 

Tabbinet (tab'-i-net). A fabric woven of silk and wool, like a pop- 
lin, with a watered or tabbied surf ace ; chiefly used for upholstery. 

Tabby [From At-tabi-ya, a quarter in Bagdad, where it was first 
manufactured.] A style of weaving which causes a watered or wavy ap- 
pearance. The term is sometimes used in the sense of moire; formerly its 
use was restricted exclusively to woolen goods, while moire signified the 
watered appearance of silk goods. The tabbying of woolen fabrics is ac- 
complished by the calender, without the use of water. The term "tabby 
cat" is derived from tffis fabric, the waved marking of the cat's fur being 
similar to the wavy appearance of the cloth. [See Moire, Watering.] 

Table Linen. Table cloths, table napkins, tray napkins, damask slips, 
damask doylies, tea cloths, etc., are all included in the general term of 
"table linen." Table cloths may be had of various dimensions, and in either 
single or double damask. They are made from 2 yards square, to 2x2j^, 
2>^x3, 3^x4, 4^, 5, h% up to 8 yards in length, so as to dine from 6 to 20 
persons; also in due proportions up to 10 yards in length, and in square 



344 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TAF 

and oval shape. Damask slips to spread over the ends of a table, to match 
any of the table cloths named, are made 22 inches in width, up to 27 inches. 
Tea cloths, with doylies to match them, are usually woven with colored 
borders, or else piece-dyed in light colors. Dinner napkins are made 
three-quarters of a yard square, by seven-eighths; also seven-eights by one 
yard square. Damask doylies are manufactured in round, oval or square 
form. Tray cloths are \%. yards square, and lxl X yards square. [See 
Damask.^ 

Taffeta (taf'-e-ta). [From Persian taftah, to spin.] A term of some- 
what general application in the silk trade. It was formerly applied to all 
plain silks simply woven by regular alternations of the warp and weft, and 
is supposed to be the first kind of silk weaving known, even to those anci- 
ent people, the Chinese. For many hundreds of years, taffeta was a sort of 
generic title for all plain silks, regardless of weight or color, but in more 
recent times has come to signify a thin, glossy silk fabric of plain texture 
or woven in cords so fine as to appear plain woven, being thus distin- 
guished from gros-grain, which is corded, and surah, which is twilled; it is 
usually dyed black. The city of Lyons, France, which has long been the 
most important center in the world for fine silk-weaving, was once the 
largest producer of taffeties in Europe, but the fabrics which she pro- 
duced were not always as lustrous as the article made nowadays. Cham- 
ber's Encyclopedia of 1741 gives a valuable and interesting account of their 
manufacture at that date, with a narrative of a change in their fabrication: 
— "There are taffeties of various colours, some plain, others checquered 
and flowered; with various others, to which the mode, or the caprice of the 
workmen give such whimsical names, that it would be as difficult as it is 
useless to rehearse them; besides that they seldom hold beyond the year 
wherein they first arose. The chief consumption of taffeties is in summer 
dresses for women, and linings, in scarves, coifs, window curtains, etc. 
There are three things which contribute chiefly to the perfection of taffeties, 
viz., the silk, the water and the fire. The silk, must not only be the finest 
kind, but it must be worked a long time, and very much, before it be 
used. The watering, besides that it is only to be given very lightly, seems 
only intended to that fine luster, by a peculiar property not to be found in 
all waters. Lastly, the fire, which is passed under it to dry the water, has 
its particular manner of application, whereon the perfection of the stuff 
depends very much. Octavio May, of Lyons, is held to be the first author 
of the manufacture of glassy taffeties, and tradition tells us the occasion of 
it. Octavio, it seems, was going backward in the world, and being unable 
to retrieve himself by the manufacture of taffeties, such as were then made, 
was one day musing on his misfortunes, and, in musing, chanced to chew 
a few threads of silk which he had in his mouth. His reverie being over, 
the silk he ejected from his mouth seemed to shine with more then ordinary 
luster, and on that account engaged his attention. He was led to reflect 
on the reason, and after a good deal of thought, concluded that the luster 



TAI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 345 

of that silk must come, 1st, From having pressed it between his teeth; 
2dly, From having wet it with his saliva, which had something glutinous 
in it; and 3dly, From its having been heated with the natural warmth of 
his mouth. All this he executed upon the next taffeties he made; and im- 
mediately acquired immense riches to himself, and to the city of Lyons the 
reputation it still maintains, of giving the gloss to taffeties better than any 
any city in the world." [See Gloves.] 

Tailor (Formerly also taylor, tailer, tayler). [From French tailler. 
cutter, hence our word retail, to cut.] One who makes the outer garments 
of men, especially one who makes such garments to order, as distinguished 
from a clothier, who sells such garments ready made. Tailor's twist, is a 
stout silk thread made of two strands; it is put up in skeins and sold by 
the ounce. [See Clothier, Merchant Tailor.] 

Talma (tal'-ma). A kind of cloak for women in fashion during the 
first half of this century. A loose wrap with a hood, falling to the waist or 
a little below; also a somewhat similar garment, made of heavier cloth, 
and worn by men usually as an overcoat. 

Tambour Work. A species of embroidery worked upon muslin 
stretched tightly by means of hoops or a frame similar to that encircling a 
tambourine, whence the name. The work is of Eastern origin, and was 
made in China, Persia, India and Turkey long before it became known in 
England or America. Previous to the 1750, tambour work was not known 
in Europe, except in Turkey. At that time it was worked upon muslin with 
white thread, and was used to ornament dresses, curtains, caps, borders 
and all varieties of white trimmings. In England the work of tambour- 
ing upon white materials with white thread became an article of manufac- 
ture about 1830, and gave employment to the poorer classes in Middlesex, 
Nottingham, and also in Ireland, but since the introduction of machinery, 
and the facility with which the stitch is executed by the embroidering 
machines, to make it by hand is no longer profitable. The tambour 
stitch produces a pattern of straight ridges crossing each other in every 
direction at right angles or acute angles. In Switzerland the stitch is 
sometimes used in the manufacture of window curtains. In America the 
the work is usually applied in the manufacture of fancy articles for house- 
hold use, such as throws, scarfs, tidies and pillow shams. 

Tamin (tam'-in). A thin woolen or worsted dress goods, plain 
woven, with a high gloss. 

Tamise (tam'-is). A trade name given to various thin woolen fabrics; 
specifically a fine, plain-woven woolen dress fabric, the warp and weft of 
which are of the same size and woven in equal proportions. It is of a 
closer and firmer weave than nun's veiling, and much finer and more deli- 
cate than bunting. Taffeta tamise is a term applied to a tamise cloth 
woven with a fine, cross-ribbed surface. [See Estamine.] 



346 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TAM 

Tammy. Same as Tamin. 

Tarn 0* Shanter. A style of cap borrowed from the Scotch, and named 
after the hero of a famous poem by Robert Burns. The cap is without a 
peak, the crown large and flat, and extending straight out from the head- 
band from 2 to 4 inches. 

Tapestry. A fabric resembling textile fabrics in that it consists of a 
warp upon which colored.threads of wool, cotton or silk are fixed to pro- 
duce a pattern, but differing from it in the fact that these threads are not 
thrown with the shuttle, but are put in one by one with a needle, and do not 
extend across the web, but only for a few inches. It is a sort of link be- 
tween regular wovenwork and embroidery, from which it differs in having 
its stitches applied not to the finished web, but to the stretched warp- 
threads only, the weft stitches being put in loosely and carefully pressed 
home, so that fhe warp strings are almost completely hidden. Pieces of 
tapestry in the past have been used generally for covering the walls of 
rooms, for which purpose they were employed in the later middle ages 
down to the 18th century. Upon these tapesteies were represented as 
clearly as in any painting, scenes from the bible and mythology, romances 
and historical subjects, decorative work in which trees and foliage formed 
the main design, and the battles and victories of kings and princes. From 
the 11th to the 18th century these hangings of tapestry were made in all the 
countries of Europe, but it was in France that the art reached its greatest 
development. The designs which have been produced in French tapestry 
exhibit all that certainty of hand, and exuberant fancy which characterize 
the artistic family of France — the Gobelins. Gobelin tapestry receives its 
name from a family of dyers and weavers who settled in Paris in 1476. 
The head of the family was Giles Gobelin. It was he who discovered a 
peculiar kind of scarlet dye, and who expended so much money on his dye- 
ing establishment that it was named la follie Gobelin. To the dye works 
there was added in the 16th century a manufactury of tapestry. So rapidly 
did the wealth of the family (descended from the original founder of the 
factory — Giles Gobelin) increase, that some of them forsook the trade and 
purchased titles of nobility. In 1662 the entire works were purchased by 
the French government, by which it has been managed from that year to 
this. This establishment the government founded like that of Sevres for 
the making of China, to raise the level of art-manufactures by setting the 
example of good design, fine coloringv and perfect workmanship. That 
they have done much there can be no doubt, but probably most of all in 
the matter of color. In this laborious and artistic work it is estimated that 
not less than 14,000 differently tinted silks and wools are in use. The 
French people have always been admirable chemists and dyers, and for 
exquisite brilliancy and general harmony of color the French tapestries are 
certainly unexcelled. The productions of the Gobelin governmental fac- 
tories were chiefly for royal use and presentation, and even at this day few 



TAP COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 347 

specimens are found outside the palaces of kings and princes. A single 
specimen owned in New York, measuring 54 x 27 inches is valued at $800. 
Real Gobelin tapestry is consequently hard to find in the market of the 
United States, though much is sold as Gobelin that is not genuine. The 
name of Giles Gobelin, who was the original discoverer of the new process 
for dyeing a beautiful and peculiar scarlet, was the means of adding a new 
word to our vocabulary. Everybody at that time looked on him as a crank 
for spending so much money on his factory, and it was called "Gobelin's 
folly," but the old dyer was shrewd and made a success ot his business — a 
success so great that the superstitious people of that time believed he was 
aided and abetted by the devil. The devil was supposed to have taught 
him the art of dyeing the beautiful scarlet on condition that at a certain 
time the devil was to have him, body and soul. When the time was up, 
according to the superstition, the devil came after him and caught him going 
through a yard at night with a little piece of lighted candle in his hand. Gobe- 
lin begged for time but the devil refused to let him have it. At last Gobelin 
requested his Satanic Majesty to wait until the bit of candle in his hand 
burned out, and the devil consented. The wiley old Gobelin, as soon as he 
got this concession, threw the candle into a well and pitched the devil in 
after it. The devil was very angry, but before he could get out, Gobelin 
gathered a guard around him and secured himself from further attacks. 
From this story came the word goblin, or hobgoblin, a. ghost or spectre, and 
it has become one of the words of the English language, but it had its 
origin in the silly story told about the man whose family first made these 
tapestries. The weaving of tapestry in the Gobelin factory is still done by 
hand, the designs being chiefly copies of foreign masterpieces of painting; 
consequently the work requires more artistic than mechanical ability for 
its execution, and is both costly and slow. A square yard is considered a 
fair average year's work and the value is about $800. In admiring the 
beautiful work of the Gobelins, the uninitiated would be likely to think the 
loom which produces it was a remarkable piece of mechanism, and the 
weaver who aided in its manufacture was skillful above his kind. In point 
of fact, the looms are quite similar to those in use thousands of years ago, 
and the worker of to-day, with all our discoveries and inventions to help 
him does not excel those who wrought the cunning work of by-gone ages. 
The high warp loom of the ancient Egyptians, as represented in pictures 
3,000 years old, bears a singular resemblance to that now in use in the lead- 
ing tapestry works of the world: there are the cross-rods, the vertical warp, 
the comb or reed which keeps the texture even — in fact, there is not one 
really essential difference. The weft alone appears on both the right and 
wrong side of the fabric, and entirely covers the warp. It is composed of 
short lengths of worsted, cotton, or silk threads, and when finished is per- 
fectly smooth. In the outline of his figures, and in passing from one shade 
to another, the workman is guided by a slight tracing on the warp, which 
is done by means of transparent paper, on which a sketch of the picture 



348 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TAP 

which is to be copied by the weaver is countertraced. This tracing of the 
picture on the warp, having to be done in sections as the work advances, 
would inevitably mislead the workman in the general affect if he were not 
careful to indicate certain leading points or guiding lines on the copy, and 
to mark them on the warp. But all these precautions and niceties would 
be of little use if the workman were not specially educated so as to be able 
to supply the insufficiency of the outline by his own intelligence and by the 
resources of his art. Neuilly or Jacquard tapestry is made on the Jacquard 
loom, in imitation of that of the Gobelins. In these goods the design is 
brought out entirely by means of the weft, the warp-threads being used 
only as binders to hold the threads of the weft together. In the tapestry 
loom, with the Jacquard attachment, there are sometimes used 24 or more 
colors of weft — each in a different shuttle. These shuttles are passed to 
and fro through the warp by the hand of the weaver as the proper warps 
are raised by the the Jacquard machine, which at the same time indicates 
the particular shade of weft to be used by the workman. Cluny tapestry is 
a strong thick cloth, made of wool and silk, especially for hangings and 
curtains, the manufacture of which was introduced into England in 1875. 
Tapestry cloth is a corded linen cloth prepared by tapestry painting. 

Tariff. A term derived from Tarifa, Spain. This town received its 
name from Tarifa Malek, a Saracen chief, who landed at that point on the 
coast in 710, and during the Moorish domination all vessels which passed 
through the Straits of Gibralter were at Tarifa compelled to pay duties or 
tribute to the savage chief; whence the word "tariff." As used at present, 
the word indicates a list of goods, with the specified duties or customs to be 
paid for the same, either on importation or exportation. In the United 
States there can be no duties imposed on exports; our tariff duties must all 
be laid on imports. Ad valorem is the duty, or tariff, on the net value of 
an invoice of goods. Ad valorem duties are levied according to the market 
value or worth of goods at the original place of shipment, as sworn to by 
the owner and verified by the custom appraisers. Specific duty is the duty, 
or tariff, on the number or quantity, as dozens, gross, or tons. [See 
Impobts, Appendix " C."] 

Tarlatan (tarl'-tan). [From Italian tarlantanna, linsey woolsey.] A 
thin, gauze-like fabric made of cotton, so open in texture as to be transpar- 
ent, and often of a rather coarse quality, used formerly for ball dresses, but 
at present for children's wear and fancy work. It is of an open texture like 
plain-woven swiss but is more heavily " sized." Tarlatan is piece-dyed in 
tints of blue, pink, green and drab, and is put up in 12-yard lengths. 

Tartan. A woolen or worsted cloth woven of different colors crossing 
each other at right angels, so as to form a definite pattern. This variegated 
cloth was formerly the distinctive dress of the Scottish Highlanders, the 
different clans having each its peculiar tartan, or plaid. More recently 
fancy tartans of various sorts of fabrics and with great variety in the pat- 



TAS COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 349 

terns have been largely manufactured, especially for women's dresses. A 
clan tartan signifies the specific variety of tartan dress worn by a High- 
land clan. Shepard's tartan is a woolen cloth made into small checkers of 
black and white; also called Shepard 's plaid. Silk tartan is a silk ma- 
terial for women's dresses and men's fancy vests, woven in the style of the 
Scottish clan tartans. Tartan velvet is the term sometimes applied to vel- 
vet with a short nap, woven in patterns resembling Scottish tartans. This 
material has been fashioned for waistcoats and other wearing apparel at 
different times. [See Clan Tartan.] 

Tassel (tas'-l). A pendent ornament, consisting generally of a 
roundish mold, covered with twisted threads of silk, wool, etc., which hang 
down in a thick fringe. Tassel fringe is a name given to a fringe com- 
posed of separate bundles of threads or cords tied to a braiding or gimp. 

Teasling. The operation of raising a nap on the surface of woven 
cloth; also called napping and gigging. Teasling is an operation applied 
with but few exceptions to woolen cloths, and usually is preceded by that 
step in the process of finishing called fulling or milling. The objects 
sought in the raising of naps are various. It may be for the procurement 
of warmth, as in the case of blankets and those varieties of flannels in- 
tended for garments to be worn next the body; or for the sake of appear- 
ance, as in chinchilla overcoating, and cotton drapery; or for the purpose 
of increasing the wearing qualities of a fabric, as in the case of cheviot 
and broad cloth. Woolen cloth intended to be teasled is first taken from 
the fulling-machine and stretched uniformly in all directions by hook on a 
frame, so that it may dry evenly without wrinkle or curl. When the cloth 
is nearly dry it is in proper condition to be teasled. The raising of the 
nap is effected by the agency of a thistle-like plant called the teasle. 
These oval teasle-heads are about 3 inches long by 2 inches in diameter, 
clothed with strong, sharp recurved hooks. They are an important article 
of commerce, being grown principally in Holland, France and Virginia. 
The scales or hooks which cover the teasle closely are possessed of high 
elasticity, combined with just sufficient stiffness for the work they have to 
do. The use of these is to scratch the surface of the cloth, and getting 
entangled with the minute surface fibers break these or pull out their ends, 
and so raise up over the whole surface a fine but unequal nap. Formerly 
the teasles were set together in a flat frame, like a large sized curry-comb, 
and by hand the workman brushed it over the whole surface of the tightly 
stretched cloth. But this laborious process has long been superseded by 
the use of the gig-mill or teasling-machine. This machine consists of a 
cylinder made to rotate at a high rate of speed. The teasle heads are 
fixed between slats over the whole surface of the cylinder, which is made 
to revolve against the surface of the cloth, just close enough so that the 
sharp hooks may scratch the surface and become slightly entangled with 
the minute surface-fibers of the cloth, and so break or pull out their ends. 
A self-acting arrangement regulates the lightness and closeness of contact 



350 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TEA 

of cloth and teasles. As already observed, there are many varieties of 
naps raised on the surfaces of woolen goods, and a nap may be raised in a 
certain class of fabrics for a purpose quite the opposite of that for which 
other naps are formed. Thus for instance, for one sort of fabric the object 
may be to get a nap which quite covers and conceals the underlying struc- 
ture, while tweeds, cassimeres, and similar goods are teasled with the view 
of later on removing the nap from the surface and leaving the pattern of 
the cloth well defined and free from all hairiness. Fabrics upon which the 
nap is intended to lie smooth, flat, and level in one direction, as broadcloth 
or kersey, are dressed by the wet method, that is, the cloth is kept very 
damp during the entire process. Cloth raised dry, on the other hand, 
throws its fiber ends straight out and up from the warp and weft. In either 
case the cloth is next submitted to the operation of cropping or shearing, 
in order to leave the nap of a perfectly uniform length. The direction in 
which the nap lies, always indicates the warp of the fabric. Cropping was 
also formerly a handicraft, the worker using a huge pair of shears, and the 
employment demanded much dexterity and skill to a produce a smooth 
level nap. It is now done with equal rapidity and certainty by a machine 
which in principle is the same as the lawn-mower, used for cutting grass. 
It consists of a cylinder armed with a set of curved knives or cutters, re- 
volving with great velocity against the stretched surface of the cloth, cut- 
ting away and breaking off the projecting fibers which come within range 
of its blades. Cloths upon which a nap of sufficient thickness has been 
raised may be finished with any fancy ridged, tufted, or waved-line surface 
desired, by simply having the blades of the shearing machine so notched 
as to cut away the undesired portions; or the nap may be pressed into 
various patterns by "stamping" between heavy iron rollers. 

Much inventive talent has been expended in endeavors to provide 
some sort of metal or wire "teeth" to supersede the teasle for the purpose 
of napping goods, but a variety of experiments, extending over many years, 
and ending in dissapointment, have led to the conviction that no artificial 
substitute for the teasle can ever be found. This conviction has become so 
ingrained into the natures of nappers of woolen cloths that of late years 
they are extremely wary of new inventions. It is quite in the line of pos- 
sibilities, however, that American inventive genius may eventually furnish 
an acceptable metal substitute, although up to the present time their pro- 
ductions have resulted in successive signal failures. Some classes of cotton 
goods, however, are now napped with wire, a description of which opera- 
tion may be found under Outing Cloth. The value of the natural teasle 
for napping woolen goods lies in the fact that, unlike any metal "teeth," 
while sufficiently strong to scratch up the entire surface of the cloth, disen- 
gaging and opening the short fibers, and thus covering the whole with a 
nap, will at the same time break in contact with a knot or other obstacle, 
without injuring the cloth, while the metal teeth from the nature of their 
construction are too liable to break and tear the threads. 



TEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 351 

T-cloth. A plain-woven cotton fabric manufactured in this country 
and England for the Chinese and East India markets. T-cloths are always 
24 yards in length, of heavily sized yarns and weigh about 4 ounces to the 
square yard. [See Madapolam.] 

Teasle Cloth. See Outing Flannel, Flannellette, Domet. 

Terry-Cloth. [Supposed to have been derived from Fr. terre, high, 
from the elevation of the loops above the foundation of warp and weft.] A 
cotton fabric with a looped pile surface, used as cloaking for children and 
in the manufacture of Turkish towels. The first terry-cloth was made of 
silk, in France, in 1841. In 1845 John Bright, the great statesman of Eng- 
land, began to make worsted terry-cloth at his mills at Rochdale. The 
fabric proved to be a great success, and many a manufacturer endeavored 
to solve the problem of producing the article in cotton. All of them failed, 
however, until Samuel Holt of England succeeded in making the first cot- 
ton terry-cloth, in 1848. He patented the process both in England and the 
United States. In 1864 Holt left London and came to Paterson, New Jer- 
sey, where he formed a company and erected a plant for the manufacture 
of terry-cloth. Two years afterward the company disposed of Holt's 
patents for $250,000. This, according to Holt's claim, violated their con- 
tract and caused a lawsuit, in which Holt lost a large amount of money. 
Terry-cloth is composed of two warps and one weft, the extra warp pro- 
ducing the loops. The operation of weaving is accomplished by winding 
each warp on a separate beam, one for the loop pile and the other for the 
foundation warp, the latter being always kept tight. After two wefts have 
been inserted and tightly beaten up, the reed is allowed to fly loose by a 
peculiar arrangement, and both warps being kept tight, two wefts are put 
in without being beat up. Then the reed is fastened and the loop warp 
made quite slack, and on the next weft being:beaten up, the two previous 
are also driven home, and with them the loop warp which was made 
slack between the fell and the two neglected warps, thus forming loops on 
both sides of the fabric. This weave is not confined exclusively to the 
making of fabrics with an unbroken pile surface, but is adopted in stripes 
for both towels and wraps, in checks and even figures for quilts, combined 
with color in other effects. Terry velvet is simply uncut velvet, being en- 
tirely of silk, and having fine ribs or cords on the best side. Inferior kinds 
are also made with a cotton back. It is chiefly used for trimmings, partic- 
ularly for children's garments. Although called velvet, it has not the nap 
or pile that is the distinguishing characteristic of such a -textile. [See 
Velvet, Turkish Towels.] 

Textile. [From Latin textilis, texo, textum, to weave, anything woven, 
or suitable for weaving.] Woven or capable of being woven, formed by or 
pertaining to weaving; also, a woven fabric. 

Texture. The peculiar disposition of the threads, strands, or the like 
which make up a textile fabric. 



352 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. THI 

Thibet cloth. A tailor's fabric, occupying a place midway between a 
melton and a cheviot. It is more elastic and softer than a melton and not 
so nappy as a cheviot, the nap, in fact, being very slight and laying close to 
the surface of the cloth, causing the goods to assume a rough, unfinished 
appearance. The name thibet has also been applied to a kind of camlet, 
formerly made of goat's hair, but now of wool, being of shaggy appearance 
and used for ladies' dresses. 

Thimble. A covering for the protection of the finger in the operation 
of sewing, of various forms, has been in use since the time when needle- 
work first began to develop into an art. In very early times this protection 
consisted of stiff, heavily-sized linen wrapped around the finger, and was 
called a " fingerlinge." The Dutch have always claimed the credit of hav- 
ing invented metal thimbles, and by tacit consent their claim was allowed 
up to a few years ago, when unfortunately for the credit of the Holland 
tailors, antiquarians about 1850, while delving in the ruins of the buried 
Roman city, Herculaneum, uncovered a jeweler's shop and found several 
thimbles of the most approved modern pattern. Since then thimbles have 
been discovered in the Egyptian Catacombs in mummy cases antedating 
the Christian era fifteen to eighteen centuries. Consequently how old is 
the thimble, or by whom was it invented, are questions that can never be 
answered. Authentic records exist showing that thimbles were made in 
Nurnburg, Germany in the last quarter of the 14th century, and that in a 
a hundred years from the time they were invented there were twenty-four 
metal thimble makers in that city alone. The art was without a doubt 
carried from Nurnberg to Holland. The first thimble ever seen in Eng- 
land was made in 1695 by a Dutch metal worker named Lofting, who "by 
hand fashioned thimbles of brass, iron, and steel, with indentions in their 
surface to prevent the needle from slipping." The usefulness of the 
article commended it at once to all who used the needle, and Lofting ac- 
quired a large property. The implement was then called the " thumb-bell," 
it being worn on the thumb when in use, and its shape suggesting the rest 
of the name. This clumsy mode of utilizing it was soon changed, however, 
but the name, softened into thimble still remains. Another origin of the 
word is also given, it being suggested that thimble might have been derived 
from thymel, a leather thumb-stall which English sail-makers formerly used 
to protect the thumb. In the ordinary manufacture of thimbles at the 
present day, thin metal plates are placed in a die and punched into the 
proper shape. Dies of different sizes are used. The thin plates of sheet 
iron are first cut into pieces about two inches in diameter. These are heated 
red-hot and struck with a punch into a number of holes, gradually increas- 
ing in depth to give them the correct shape. The thimble is then polished, 
trimmed and indented around its outer surface with a number of holes by 
means of a small wheel. It is then changed into steel by the cementation 
process, lined, scoured, tempered and brought to a blue color. Silver 
thimbles are usually made of solid silver, though cheap qualities are some- 



THR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 353 

times plated or washed. Celluloid and rubber thimbles are moulded. The 
best gold thimbles are made at Paris. These are made of a thin founda- 
tion of steel and lined with gold, which is introduced and attached to the 
steel by means of a mandrel. Gold leaf is then attached to the outside 
by great pressure, the edges of the leaf being fitted in and held by small 
grooves at the base of the thimble. The article is then ready for use. The 
gold will last for years, while the steel never wears out. A sail-makers 
thimble is a kind of leather ring worn on the thumb, and provided with a 
metal disc, with small depressions for pushing the needle through the stiff 
cloth or canvas. 

Thread. A twisted filament of a fibrous substance, as cotton, flax 
silk or wool, spun out to considerable length. In a specific sense thread is 
a minute cord consisting of two or more yarns firmly united together by 
twisting. Thread is used in some species of weaving, but its principle use 
is for sewing. The word was used formerly to signify linen, as distinguished 
from sewing silk and sewing cotton, as is seen in the phrases thread-lace 
and thread-glove, but this distinction is not at present maintained. Thread 
is technically a compound cord of more than one strand; single strands 
are known asjflr«. Hence we have the six cord thread ordinarily sold, 
and other varieties known and made for various manufacturers. The first 
sewing thread ever made of cotton was produced at Pawtucket, Rhode 
Island, in 1794. Prior to this time linen had been the material used for 
making thread, and in the early days a spinning wheel for its manufacture 
was as common in every household as the modern sewing machine at the 
present time. Each family in the early days spun their own thread from 
flax of their own raising. The idea of using cotton is said to have been 
suggested by the wife of Samuel Slater. Samuel Slater is generally re- 
garded as the father of cotton manufacturing in this country, and the man 
to whom the world is indebted for the discovery of cotton thread. In 1794, 
while spinning a quantity of Sea Island cotton, the beauty and evenness of 
the yarn attracted the attention of Mrs. Slater. The question arose, if this 
is doubled and twisted, why will it not make good sewing thread ? The 
experiment was made, and, in order to be fully satisfied of the result, a 
sheet was made with one-half linen thread and the other half of cotton. 
It was immediately put into use, and the first thread that gave way was the 
linen. From this period Slater commenced the manufacture of cotton thread 
and it soon spread to England, France, Scotland and other European coun- 
tries, where it is generally supposed to be of English origin. This erroneous 
supposition was produced and strengthened from the fact that with the in- 
vention of the spinning jenny and other improved machinery for the spin- 
ning of cotton and other fibers, the early development of the industry was 
most extensive in Europe. The manufacture of sewing thread was one of 
the first branches of industry to which the new spinning machinery was 
applied. These machines were all patented and for many years exclusively 

owned in England and Scotland, hence the thread makers of those countries 
23 



354 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. THR 

secured advantages which required in America not only heavy protective 
import duties but fifty long years of manufacturing experience to overcome. 
Spool cotton thread for more than the first half of the present century was 
imported from Paisley, Scotland, but during the past thirty years, influenced 
by new tariff duties, a great stimulus has been given to the business here, 
resulting in the erection of several magnificent mills which are supplied 
with the most improved and perfect machinery that modern science can 
construct; and by importing skilled labor to spin the yarn and spool it we 
have succeeded in making the best spool thread in the world and at rela- 
tively the lowest price. While spool cotton is now made of a higher order 
and superior quality than ever, it is a notable fact that it has been selling at 
steadily declining prices since 1860. 

BELLIHG PHIOE 
1860 .-; $1 40 to $1 75 

1865 80 to 1 10 

1870 _ _ 72 to 80 

1875 55 to 72 

1880 55 

1885 55 

1890 45 

Nominally, the jobbing price for first-class six-cord spool thread is 45c 
per dozen, of 200 yards to the spool ; but for large purchases from first 
hands there is a trade discount which reduces the price to about 38.7 cents 
net cash per dozen spools. The six-cord thread now made is far superior 
in every way to that which was formerly sold. The fiber in the yarn is 
much finer, and hence the yarn is smoother and stronger, and in most of 
the leading makes nothing but Sea Island cotton is used. But few people 
including even those who use the thread, have any conception what Sea 
Island cotton is worth [See Cotton], for it is never sold or quoted at the 
Cotton Exchanges. The small crop that is grown of this variety in this 
country is bought always as soon as raised by the spool-thread manufac- 
turers of Europe and the United States, and they work up the entire annual 
product into thread. In the manufacture of thread the first step that is 
taken with the raw cotton is to subject it to the " picker " process, by which 
the cotton from several bales is mixed, to secure uniformity. During this 
operation much waste, in the form of dust, dirt and short fibers, is sepa- 
rated from the good cotton by the picker. Next the cotton is wound on a 
machine, in sheets or laps, into a roll. Then comes the carding, by which 
these sheets are combed out into long, parallel fibers, and drawn into a 
single fluffy sliver. Then comes the fast " roving " process, which consists 
in winding and twisting these threads into minute strands or cords, num- 
bered from 1 to 300. [See Spinning.] Two of the cords thus produced 
are wound together on a spindle, and then twisted from that spindle to 
another, and then three threads of two cords each are twisted together, 
forming a six-cord thread. Each particular number of thread has its own 
twist— that is, the number of turns it gets to the inch. The six-cord thread, 



THR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 355 

is at last taken from the bobbins, and reeled into a skein, in which form it 
is bleached or dyed. From the skeins the thread is wound back on little 
white birch spools, and is ready for the market. The machine that regu- 
lates the last winding measures the number of yards on each spool, and the 
paper labels which decorate the ends are cut and pasted on by machinery 
with great rapidity. Not many persons understand clearly why thread is 
numbered 8, 10, 12, 16, etc., up to 200, although the reason is very simple : 
When cotton yarn first began to be made 840 yards of it weighed one pound. 
This was called No. 1, and if a pound contained twice this number of yards 
it was called No. 2, and so on. This system of numbering, or " sizing," has 
been continued by all cotton spinners down to the present time. 

When 1 hank of cotton yarn (840 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 1 
When 2 hanks of cotton yarn (1,680 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 2 
When 10 hanks of cotton yarn (8,400 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 10 
When 50 hanks of cotton yarn (42,000 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 50 
When 100 hanks of cotton yarn (84,000 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 100 
When 150 hanks of cotton yarn (126,000 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 150 
When 200 hanks of cotton yarn (168,000 yds.) weigh 1 lb. it is sized No. 200 

The spool thread of to-day, however, is not of the grade made before 
sewing machines became a modern factor. The early manufactured thread 
was but three-cord, and took its number from the size of the yarn from 
which it was made; for instance three strands of No. 60 yarn made No. 60 
thread — though in point of fact, the actual calibre of No. 60 thread would 
equal No. 20 yarn — being three No. 60 strands combined. When the sew- 
ing machine came into market as the great consumer of thread, the thread 
had to be made a smoother product than formerly was required for mere 
hand needles. This was accomplished by making the thread of six cords 
instead of three. As thread numbers were already established, they were 
not altered for the new article, and consequently at the present time No. 60 
six-cord and No. 60 three-cord are identical in size as well as number. To 
effect this, of course, the six-cord thread had to be made of strands just 
twice as fine as that demanded by the three-cord; hence No. 60 six-cord is 
made of six strands of 120 yarn, No. 50 being made of six strands of No. 100 
yarn, etc. All sizes of six-cord thread are made of six strands each twice as 
fine as the number designated by the label, while three-cord thread is made 
of three strands of same size yarn as is designated by the number on the 
label. This is the whole of the thread measurement. 

The state of Maine turns out nearly all of the spools on which the 
thread of this country is wound; in Oxford County alone hundreds of thous- 
ands of feet of logs being cut and sawed into spool timber annually. 
These strips are sent to the spool factories where they are quickly worked 
into spools by the most ingenious labor-saving machinery. Almost all the 
spools now made are produced from birchwood, and the machinery used in 
their manufacture has been brought to such a degree of perfection as to 
reduce their cost to the lowest possible figure. The wood is first sawed 
into sticks four or five feet long and seven-eighths of an inch to three 



856 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. THR 

inches square, according to the intended size of the spool. These sticks 
are thoroughly seasoned, sawed into short blocks, and dried in a hot-air 
kiln at the time they are sawed, holes being bored perpendicularly through 
each block, which is set on end under a rapidly revolving long-shaped 
auger. At this stage one whirl of each little block against some small 
knives that are turning at lightning speed fashions it into a spool after the 
manner of the pattern provided, and this, too, at the rate of one a second 
for each set of knives. A row of small boys feed the spool-making ma- 
chines by simply placing the blocks in a spout, selecting the best, and 
throwing out the knotty and defective stock. The machine is automatic, 
excepting the operation performed by the boys. The strips of white birch 
as fed into the machine are hardly seen again until the spools, all finished 
for market except polishing, drop out by the bushel from another machine 
rods away from where the strips started in. The spools get their gloss by 
being rapidly revolved in barrels by machinery, the polish resulting from 
the contact of the spools in the barrel. A peculiar name, either of a local- 
ity or a product, always attracts public curiosity, but investigation gener- 
ally reveals a simple and distinctive origin. No better illustration of this 
fact can be cited than that of the famous Clark "Mile-End" spool cotton, 
respecting which many amusing surmises have been made as to the mean- 
ing or intent of the word "Mile-End." The name Mile-End was taken from 
the town near Glasgow, Scotland, where the original spool cotton mills 
were established, and from which exportations to the United States began 
in 1820. It was the first thread introduced to the American public on 
spools, all thread having been previously sold in skeins or hanks. It grew 
so great in popularity that in 1870 it was deemed advisable to establish a 
mill in this country, at Newark, N. J., though the name Mile-End has still 
been maintained. 

Throstle. A spinning frame, a modification of Arkwright's water 
frame, said to derive its name from a low musical hum, due to the high 
speed which it attains, which is supposed to resemble the note of the 
"throstle" or wild thrush. It was introduced in 1815, but has since been 
greatly improved upon. The throstle frame is now used exclusively for 
the production of warps. In the most approved machines of this kind the 
spindles make 5,500 revolutions a minute, each spindle producing 27 hanks 
per week of 56 hours, when spinning No. 32 yarn. As each throstle con- 
tains from 200 to 300 spindles the weekly production of warp per throstle 
amounts to about 5,670,000 yards. [See Spinning, Factory.] 

Tick. [From Fr. ticquette, ticket, a bill stuck up; a marked card; a 
token of any right or debt.] Tick, the current slang for credit, is an ab- 
breviation of ticket, the old name for a tradesman's bill.. 

Ticking. [Formerly spelled ticken.] A strong cotton cloth, used 
chiefly tor making beds, covering mattresses, pillows and the like, of var- 
ious widths, weights, and patterns, although the latter is generally con- 



TIL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 357 

fined to longitudinal stripes. The quality is usually denoted by the num- 
ber of ounces per square yard. 

Tile. A tall stiff hat; a silk hat; so called from its fancied resemblance 
to a section of polished tiling. 

Tinsel. An ornamental fabric or cord overlaid with glittering metallic 
sparkles or threads. The name was formerly given to cloth of silk, inter- 
woven with gold or silver threads, but is now always applied to cheap fin- 
ery, glistening like gold and silver, but at the same time pretending a value 
and richness which it does not really possess. There lay no such insinua- 
tion of pretentious splendor in its earlier uses. In the 13th, 14th and 15th 
centuries, in Europe, by " tinsel " was commonly meant a silver or gold 
texture of great value and magnificence, and no man was permitted to wear 
such textures under the rank of a duke. 

Tippet. A covering for the shoulders, so named from its forming the 
tip or cape of a garment, or from being worn on the tip or top. The term 
has not only been applied to a kind of enlarged collar, as it is known now, 
but also to the long tail of a hood, to the cape of a hood, and even to 
streamers pendent from the arms. Tippets have varied in size as well as 
in shape, being sometimes so wide as to almost form a mantle, and at other 
times so narrow as to be little more than a collar. The tippet in vogue now 
is simply a long roll of fur or plush, wh'ich when accompanied by a muff, 
forms a set of furs. [See Boa.] 

Tissue. [From Fr. fissure, to weave.] A woven fabric. In former 
times a very fine fabric, richly colored or ornamented, and often shot with 
gold threads; now, any light, gauzy material, such as is used for veils, or, 
more indefinitely, any woven fabric of fine quality. The cloth is frequently 
mentioned by the old historians as being used in pageants, tournaments, 
and the like, as though the fabric was designed for display rather than for 
personal service. The very thin smooth paper which still goes by the name 
of tissue-paper was originally made to be put between the folds of this rich 
stuff to prevent fraying or tarnishing when laid by. 

Toga (to'-ga). The principal outer garment worn by the ancient 
Romans. It was a loose and flowing mantle or wrap of irregular form, 
without sleeves, usually made of wool, sometimes with a purple border at 
the bottom, and sometimes embroidered. Persons accused of any crime 
allowed their togas to become soiled as a sign of dejection; candidates for 
public offices whitened their togas artificially with chalk, presumably as an 
index to the spotless character of the wearer; while mourners wore a toga 
of black natural wool. [See Purple.] 

Toile (two-la' or twol). A plain-woven, bleached fabric generally of 
linen, though occasionally woven of fine-spun cotton. 

Toilet. [From Fr. toile cloth.] The dress and make-up of a person; 
also the operation of dressing. 



358 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TOI 

Toilinette (toil-i-nef). See Valentia. 

Toque (toke). [From Welch toe, hat.] A style of head covering 
worn in the 16th century by both men and women. At present a small 
form of ladies' bonnet in the shape of a round, close-fitting crown without 
any brim. 

Tortoise-shell (tortis-shell). The scales on the outer shell of certain 
sea-turtles. These horny scales or plates are naturally of a beautiful mot- 
tled or clouded color, and are extensively used in the manufacture of 
combs, brushes, card-cases, hair pins, and trinkets. The shells are some- 
times of enormous size, measuring a yard across. The value lies in the 
color more than in size, though large and small are sold together by weight. 
A clear, amber-colored shell is considered most valuable, and this, in its 
rough state, is worth $10 per pound; red-brown is next in point of value, at 
$6 per pound, then dark brown at $4 per pound. The shells are principally 
worked up in Naples and Messina, Italy, where they undergo a great deal 
of polishing and cleaning before being put into use. Olive oil and a com- 
position called tripolo are used for polishing, and these produce a smooth- 
ness and luster which bring out all the beauty of the shell. A great deal 
of time and labor is devoted to this, for the Italian does not know the good 
service of machinery, but works slowly and well with small tools. With 
the aid of minute knives and files, he takes a piece of shell and patiently 
goes to work. He seems to do it lazily, rather indifferently, but his eye is 
exact from long practice and what is done is well done, and will bear criti- 
cal inspection. There are no rough edges, no unpolished portions. The 
same care is taken in every detail, and laziness and slowness must needs 
be forgiven in view of the result. The scales become very plastic when 
heated; and when allowed to cool retain with sharpness any form they may 
be molded to in the heated state. Pieces can also be welded together 
under the pressure of hot irons. The best tortoise shell is obtained from 
the Indian Ocean. It is in this country largely imitated in horn, and in 
artificial compounds of much less cost, none of which are so clear or flexi- 
ble as the genuine shell. 

Tow. The coarse and broken part of flax or hemp separated from the 
finer part by heckling or swingling. [See Flax.] 

Towel. A linen or cotton cloth used for drying the face and hands, 
and for other purposes. Towels, both in their use and title, have remained 
unchanged for a long period, even if they have ever known change. [See 
Crash, Linen, Turkish Towels.] 

Town-made. A term referring to that class of fabric gloves or hosiery 
made by cutting out the various portions from a pattern and sewing them 
together with seams, in contradistinction to frame-made and full regular 
made. [See Gloves, Hosiery.] 

Trade-mark. A distinguishing mark or device adopted by a manu- 
facturer or jobber and impressed on his goods and labels to indicate their 



TRA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 359 

origin. In the United States the protection of trade-marks is provided for 
by statute. The earliest trade-marks were those used in the manufacture 
of paper, and which are known as water-marks These date as far back as 
1351, that is, shortly after the invention of making paper from rags. 
Tram. Silk thread employed for wefts. [See Silk.J 
Tricot (tre'-ko). A French term signifying stocking net; tricotage 
means knitting, and tricoteur, knitter, hence the particular weave known as 
tricot, often found in flannel and other woolen cloths, is so called on account 
of its intended resemblance to a knitted web. Tricot cloth is a fine woolen 
material, of the weave above referred to, it is usually dyed black or dark 
navy blue, and used for men's clothing. Tricot flannel is a double width 
dress fabric, of coarse texture. 

Trousers. [From Fr. trousses, corresponding with the old English 
word breeches.'] In the United States the original word trousers is almost 
laid aside, the term being only applied to the loose garments of sailors or 
laborers, while pantaloons colloquially pants is used in all other cases. The 
English, on the contrary still adhere to the old term in respect equally to 
the dress of gentlemen and all others, confining pantaloons to its historical 
sense. Breeches are properly short trousers, reaching just below the knee; 
the use of the word for trousers is erroneous and vulgar. Tight fitting 
drawers for men are in trade termed trousers. 

Trunks. See Bathing Trunks. 

Trust. Specifically, a trust in modern commercial usage, is an organ- 
ization for the control of several corporations under one set of directors, by 
the device of a transfer by the stockholders in each of the separate corpo- 
rations of at least a majority of all the stock to a central committee or board 
of trustees, who issue in return to such stockholders, certificates showing in 
effect that, although they have parted with their stock and the consequent 
voting power, they are still entitled to dividends and to share in the profits 
— the object being to enable the trustees to elect directors in all the corpo- 
rations, to control and suspend at pleasure the work of any; and thus to 
economize expenses, regulate the production or output, and defeat compe- 
tition. 

Tulle (tull). [Properly point de tulle, a fine net, so called from the 
town of that name, capital of the department of Correz, France.] Silk bob- 
binet ; a plain, fine silk net, used for women's veils and bonnets, sometimes 
ornamented with dots like blonde lace, but more commonly without pat- 
tern. Machinery for the manufacture of tulle was invented about the year 
1800, and was copied after the bobbinet invention. At first it was termed 
tulle simple et double ; in 1825, tulle bobine grenadine ; next it was known 
as zephyr, and finally as illusio7i. The Jacquard system has been very suc- 
cessfuly adapted to the manufacture of tulle. Blonde is a narrow tulle 
adapted for quillings. [See Bobbinet.] 



360 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TUN 

Tunic. A garment of high antiquity, now only worn by women and 
boys, but amongst the Romans and Greeks common to both sexes. Gener- 
ally speaking, the tunic of the Romans and Saxons was a close-fitting gar- 
ment reaching below the knees, enveloping the whole body, and fitted with 
sleeves. The Romans, who did not begin the wearing of tunics until a late 
period, soon wore them in duplicate, the under tunic being called by them 
the subercula, and the upper, distingushed by bands denoting the rank of 
the wearer, the indusium. Through them it was introduced into England, 
and soon became the ordinary wear of the natives, continuing in use under 
a wide variety of lengths and forms until the 15th century, after which time 
it is, as an upper garment, lost sight of. 

Turkey Red. Cochineal, which is so suitable a coloring matter for wool 
and silk, does not dye a fast color upon cotton or linen, but from very remote 
times the Hindoos have possessed a process for dyeing a brilliant and extreme- 
ly permanent red upon cotton fabrics by means of madder. [See Madder.] 
This process traveled westward through the Levant into Turkey, the date 
of its introduction into Western Europe going no further back than the 
middle of the 18th century, at which period dyers from Smyrna and Adrian- 
ople first introduced the process into France, and, up to the end of the 
last century they were at the head of the French government dye works ; 
but it was naturally difficult for a handful of foreigners to preserve their 
secrets for a length of time from the workmen employed, and in course of 
ten years from their introduction their methods of dyeing were no longer a 
secret. The name Turkey red was applied to calico dyed with madder at 
the time that such goods could be obtained only from Turkey, and it still re- 
tains the name. Turkey red is is essentially a madder red with a chemical 
basis, but differs from a common madder red by containing oil, and it is 
the fixing and combining of the oil with cotton and the madder which con- 
stitues its peculiar durability. Divested of details, the process of produc- 
ing Turkey red may be divided into four stages : — (1) The oiling of the 
cloth ; (2) mordanting with a salt of aluminum ; (3) dyeing with madder, or 
its equivalent, alizarin ; and (4) the brightening of the dyed color. The 
preparation of the cloth with oil is a process used in no other kind of dye- 
ing. A low quantity of olive oil is most generally used, though cotton- 
seed oil is sometimes substituted. The cloth to be dyed is steeped in a 
large vessel of the oil, wrung out, and dried in a warm stove ; this process 
is repeated six or eight times, the cloth being fianally washed to remove 
the surplus of oil not intimately united with the fiber. The cloth in this 
state is ready for mordanting, which is done by passing it through a bath 
of alum ; the excess of mordant is then carefully washed away from the 
cloth, and it is ready for dyeing. The dyeing is accomplished in the ordi- 
nary way, by keeping the cloth in continual motion in a vessel containing 
heated water and the dyestuff, which may be madder or alizarin. It is a 
very general practice to add a quantity of ox-blood to the water used in 
dyeing Turkey red. What purpose this fulfills is not known, as its coloring 



TUR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 361 

matter cannot be supposed to be of any use. Probably its addition is quite 
superfluous, and is retained from the custom of older times, when dyeing 
was less understood than at present. When the dyeing is completed, the 
color is a deep but dull red, which requires brightening. To give it a more 
brilliant color, the goods are boiled for several hours in a closed copper 
boiler, with a mixture of salt of tin with the soap used in the last boiling. 
No allusion has been made to the number of excrementitious and other animal 
matters, which the old dyers used in the oiling process, such as sheep-dung, 
cow-dung, stale urine, ox-bile, etc. They are at the present day dispensed 
with, and were employed anciently probably from caprice or ignorance. 
Besides being largely used in its plain-red state, Turkey red calico is fig- 
ured by ordinary calico printing machines, by which the different colors of 
a pattern or a figure are printed in portions of the calico where the red 
color is discharged by chloride of lime, as in the case of Indigo blue prints 
and Bandanna handkerchiefs (which see). [See Mordanting, Madder, 
Alizarine.] 

Turkish Towel. A cotton hand towel, distinguished by the surface 
being covered with a looped pile, produced by the same process of weav- 
ing as terry cloth. From the invention of terry cloth to the manufacture 
of Turkish towels was but a single step, and when the first towel was pre- 
sented to Queen Victoria, she was so pleased with it, that she awarded the 
inventor, Samuel Holt, a medal, and the favor thus shown by royalty for 
the new product, was soon adopted by her loyal subjects. Why these 
towels should be called "Turkish" is difficult to understand, considering 
that the article was invented and first manufactured in England. The 
only explanation that will hold good is that soon after the invention was 
made, large quantities of the new towels were shipped to Turkey, where 
they were, and are still held in high estimation by the Orientals. [See 
Terry Cloth.] 

Turk's Satin. A soft brocaded silk material, with a twilled back. It is 
used for men's vests and women's evening shoes, and for lining fur gar- 
ments. 

Tussah Silk. Silk made from the cocoons of wild silk worms in India. 
It is inferior to the product of the domesticated worm. 

Tweed. A woolen cloth manufactured solely for men's clothing. It 
is a twilled fabric, two or more colors being generally combined in one 
yarn, and of soft, open and flexible structure. On leaving the loom, tweeds 
are slightly fulled, teasled, and the fibrous nap so raised sheared down 
smooth, and then pressed. The object of these operations is to make the 
pattern appear more prominent and clearly defined. When first manu- 
factured the patterns of tweeds were confined to shepherd checks of three 
or four sizes. After the original style of tweed had enjoyed popularity for 
several years, it happened that an English manufacturer had made up a 
quantity of these checks in which the whites were so impure and dirty 



362 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. TWE 

looking, from being mixed with inferior wool, that they would not sell. 
The happy idea struck him that if the pieces were dipped in a brown dye 
it would cover the white and convert the checks into brown and black. 
This was managed so successfully that upon these "new styles" being sent 
to London they not only sold rapidly, but large orders flowed in for more 
in all the different sizes of checks. To this circumstance is attributed the 
beginning of the manufacture of "fancy tweed." At present the fabric is 
woven in all descriptions of checks and stripes, as well as plain styles. 
Tweeds were for many years called "twills." The Scotch people pro- 
nounce the word twill as "tweel." It was the word "tweels" having been 
blotted or imperfectly written in an invoice which gave rise to the now 
familiar name of these goods. In a certain lawsuit the word was read 
"tweeds" by the late James Lock, of London, and it was so appropriate 
from the fact of the goods being almost exclusively made on the banks of 
River Tweed, Scotland, that it was at once adopted, and has been con- 
tinued ever since. 

Twill. [From German twillen, to separate into two parts.] An ap- 
pearance of diagonal lines or ribs produced in textile fabrics by causing the 
weft threads to pass over two and under one, or over three (or more) warp 
threads, instead of over one and under the next in regular succession, as 
in plain weaving. The object of twill weaving is to increase the weight or 
bulk of a fabric and to ornament it. The disposition of the threads per- 
mits the introduction of more material into the fabric, and hence makes it 
more bulky and closer in construction than in plain weaving. Many 
different patterns or surfaces can be produced by twilling that is by 
changing the order of passing the weft over the warp threads; as a satin 
twill, plain twill, 3-leaf and 4-leaf twills and a damask twill. The regu- 
larity of the twilled lines is broken in various ways in what is termed fancy 
twilling; as in herringbone and zig-zag weaving. The effect of each va- 
riety of twilling is to form a distinct pattern upon the fabric. [See Weav- 
ing, Satin, Damask.] 

Twines and Strings. See Cordage. 

Twine cloth. A fine bleached cotton cloth, used as a substitute for 
linen. 

U 

Ulster. A style of long, loose overcoat, worn by both men and 
women, originally made of frieze cloth, at Ulster, Ireland. The peculiarity 
of this coat is that it is cut almost straight for both sexes, reaching very 
nearly to the feet, and is sometimes girded with a belt; it frequently has a 
hood or cape. Also called a great coat. 

Umbrella. [From It. ombrello "a little shade."] The umbrella lays 
claim to a pedigree of the highest antiquity, having had its origin in 



UMB COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 363 

very remote times in the far East, and in some Asiatic countries it was, 
and still, is regarded as an emblem of royalty, or a mark of distinction. In 
ancient Greece its use was familar among women for protection from the 
sun, and is frequently represented in paintings and sculptures. As a defense 
from rain or snow it was not used in Europe till early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury. The innovation in England was harshly met at first. The bearers of 
umbrellas were hooted and jeered at as "Frenchmen," the mode having been 
directly brought from Paris, and it is a matter of history that a woman was 
mobbed in the streets of Bristol for displaying such extreme effeminacy, 
although it could not well be considered a sign of weakness to carry so 
cumbrous an article as the early umbrella. In the first days of the manu- 
facture, the elaborate structures of gingham or oiled silk, whalebone or 
cane, were very heavy, sometimes weighing as much as five pounds. Each 
successive improvement has been primarily devoted to securing lightness, 
and after that to improve materials and mechanism. For a hundred years 
after their introduction into Europe there was little or no improvement until 
alpaca came to be substituted as a covering instead of oiled cotton. In 
those days the ribs were made of whalebone or cane. If distended when 
wet, and if permitted to remain until dry, this substance would perman- 
ently assume a bent shape, rivaling the renowned Sairey Gamp's gingham. 
Steel ribs came into use about 1852, and in 1860 the concave Paragon rib 
was introduced. To describe the process of umbrella making is simply to 
explain how the component parts are put together. The sticks come from 
all parts of the earth. They are usually in two pieces, for the ornamental 
handles are generally parts of rough knotty shrubs, while the main stem 
requires to be straight, smooth and strong. As they arrive at the factory 
in a comparatively unfinished state, the first thing to be done is to cut them 
to the required length, then to fix in the springs which are required to hold 
the umbrella when open or closed. This operation is performed by a small 
circular saw, against which the workman presses the stick, and by intuition 
apparently the slot is made to the exact depth required. The springs are 
then riveted, and the next process is the adjustment of the frame-work. 
The frame-work of silk umbrellas consists (usually) of ten ribs and ten 
stretchers, while cotton umbrellas range from eight rib to sixteen rib. Each 
have a runner which slides over the stick, and a ferrule which secures the 
ribs to the stick. The ferrule and runner are slipped over the stick, while 
each rib and each stretcher have an eye through which wire is passed and 
drawn up to the runner and fastened. The ribs are secured in the same 
way to the ferrule, the latter is riveted to the stick and the frame-work is 
complete. The frames are then handed over to girls, who cover the joints 
with small bits of cloth. In preparing the covers the first thing is to hem 
the silk; afterward the portions of the cover are cut and sent to the 
machine room to be stitched together. When complete the cover is 
slipped over the frame-work and sewed fast to the ribs, the cap or metal 
top piece is affixed, and the umbrella is finished. Umbrella silk is of 



364 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. UND 

special make and is usually sold by the inch of width for every yard 
length. All-silk covering sells from 2% to 5 cents per inch. Piece-dyed 
cotton and silk covering is made in this country, but yarn-dyed mixtures 
are imported. Umbrellas range in size from 26 to 36 inch. A "size of an 
umbrella is one inch in the length of the rib. 

Underwear. Underclothing; under linen; a general term which in- 
cludes every article worn beneath the external or outer garments, by day 
or by night, both of men and women. Underwear is made of every con- 
ceivable sort of material, as silk, cotton, wool, linen, stockinette, spun silk, 
lace, cambric, merino, flannel, nainsook, elastic, jean, muslin, etc. There 
has been much dispute among the advocates of the various fibers as to 
which was the most suitable for underwear. Wool has been recommended 
by eminent medical authorities for both hot and cold countries on account 
of its property of promoting insensible perspiration, which being absorbed 
by the spongy material is immediately distributed equally throughout the 
whole thickness of the fabric; and thus being exposed over a large surface 
is carried off by the atmosphere, keeping the body at the same time at an 
equal temperature. Wool, relatively to linen and cotton (it is claimed) is a 
non-conductor of heat and electricity, and therefore tends to preserve to 
the body its normal measure of these vital energies. It is the function of 
the skin through its 7,000,000 pores to throw off from 28 to 32 ounces of 
exhalations (refuse matter) which is generated in the body during every 
24 hours. All kinds of animal wool and hair readily absorb the ex- 
cretions of the skin, but does not retain them, but transmit, and disperse 
them at their outer surfaces by a repulsive energy to which the self- 
cleansing properties of hair and wool are properly due. The value of 
this feature of the woolen system is very apparent. Silk is also recom- 
mended for underwear, and possesses several advantages over other 
fibers. The fiber of silk is perfectly smooth, symmetrical and solid, not 
hollow like cotton and linen fibers, and without the minute scales pecul- 
iar to wool. Silk is a great absorbent because its fibers are so glassy fine 
— a sort of spidery catgut — and fluids, water or perspiration creep between 
the fibers and are held, yet will pass out quickly, evaporating and drying, 
or will wash out readily. It is like glass, in that nothing clings to it. In 
its natural color silk accumulates no germs of disease and moths and bugs 
find no home in it. For these reasons when made up into underwear, it 
is necessarily hygienic and salutary. Linen is advocated as a superior 
material for underwear on account of its absorbent qualities. The 
majority of the peasants of Russia wear linen next to the skin and claim 
that it is as warm as wool, and in addition that it wears longer, is more 
easily washed, does not shrink, and sheds dust and dirt much more readily. 
[See Kneipp Linen.] 

It may be laid down as a rule that during a greater portion of the 
year in northern climates undergarments of heavy material should be 
worn by persons exposed to the weather. However, it is unnecessary 



UNI COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 365 

and unwise for individuals following indoor occupations to wear the 
heavier varieties of underwear. The person who changes his gauze for 
the heaviest flannel on September 15, and continues these heavy garments 
until May 15, regardless, of the varions changes in the weather, may be as 
much in error as he who wears gauze only the year around. A clerk 
who is in a warm room the greater part of the day is not expected to 
wear the same weight of underwear as a teamster or street car driver, 
who is out of doors and much exposed. In short, one's underwear should 
depend upon the degree of his exposure, and should be of a weight that 
will insure the greatest comfort during that part of the day when he is 
at his particular occupation; and if more warmth is required when not 
at work it should come from additional outer clothing. 

Union Cassimere. A mixed material confined exclusively to the manu- 
facture of clothing. It is made with cotton warp and wool weft, the pat- 
tern of the cloth being produced in the loom. 

Union Underwear. A style of underwear in which the drawers and 
vest are combined together as one garment. 

Upholstery. A term by which every description of textile fabrics em- 
ployed in the making and covering of furniture is designated. Varieties of 
silk, velvet, horsehair, rep, leather cloth, moreen, Utrecht velvet, cretonne, 
dimity, etc., are all included under the name of upholstery stuffs. 

Utrecht Yelvet. Mohair furniture plush. Formerly this fabric was 
manufactured exclusively at Utrecht, Holland, hence the name; but more 
recently the trade has centered at Amiens, France, and in Connecticut. 
The latter state supplies over one-half the amount required for domestic 
use by this country. It is used chiefly for upholstering railway cars and 
office furniture. It has a mohair pile woven into a linen foundation and is 
an exceedingly durable material. [See Mohair, Plush, Velvet, Weav- 
ing.] 

V. 

Yalentia. A mixed material having a cotton warp, or a cotton-and- 
silk warp for the silk portion, and a worsted weft of fine British lustre wool. 
Valentias are produced in large quantities in Spitalfields, London, and the 
patterns are quite variegated and showy in appearance. They are manu- 
factured exclusively for men's fancy vests, being similar to the fabric 
termed toilinette, which is composed of silk and cotton and "woolen" 
yarn, hence is of somewhat softer texture than valentia. 

Vegetable Flannel. A material made from pine leaves. When spun 
and woven the thread resembles hemp, and is made into articles of under- 
clothing; the latter keep the body comfortably warm and are very solid. 
Blankets are also made of this material, and are exclusively employed in 
the hospitals, barracks, and prisons of Germany. One of their principal 



366 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. VEG 

advantages is that they harbor no vermin. The fabric is woven in no other 
city except Breslau, Germany, where there are two establishments devoted 
to their manufacture. 

Vegetable Leather. A name given to a cloth woven of flax and hemp 
coated with a composition which gives it the appearance of leather. 

Vegetable Ivory. See Buttons. 

Vegetable Fibers. See Fiber. 

Vegetable Silk. A variety of brown colored down gathered from a 
kind of fern, imported from the Sandwich Islands, which is used in this 
country to a limited extent by upholsterers for stuffing mattresses, beds and 
cushions. 

Veil. In modern use the veil is a piece of gauze, barege, net, or simi- 
lar fabric, used to cover the face, either for concealment or as a screen 
against sunlight, dust, insects, etc. It is one of the most ancient articles of 
female attire, and for centuries has been a necessary constituent in the cos- 
tume of a nun. Thin veils of gauze, or of some transparent substance of 
the like kind, were in use among the Jewish ladies as early as the time of 
Solomon: to this ornament apparently he alludes in the Canticles, where, 
speaking of the bride, he says, "Thine eyes are like those of doves behind 
thy veil." It is a well known fact that every woman of rank or character in 
the eastern part of the world from time immemorial down to the present 
hour, appears veiled before the eyes of men. "With them the veil is con- 
sidered a protection to the female sex; and therefore the removing or 
turning it forcibly aside is conceived to be the highest insult that a man 
could be guilty of toward a woman, an affront of this character on the part 
of a stranger being often punished by death. Veils, although generally 
considered a portion of female dress, were at one time worn by men. St. 
Ambrose (A. D. 374) speaks of the "silken garments and veils interwoven 
with gold, with which the body of rich men were encompassed." Their use 
is now so extended that they are found in every part of the civilized world, 
but almost exclusively confined to women. The custom for a bride to wear 
a veil at her marriage originated in the Anglo-Saxon manner of perform- 
ing the wedding ceremony under a large veil, or square piece of cloth held 
at each corner by a tall man over the head of the bride, to conceal her vir- 
gin blushes; but if the bride was a widow the veil was esteemed useless. 
[See Gauze.] 

Vellum. Parchment; the skin of calves prepared for writing or print- 
ing by long exposure in a bath of lime and by repeated rubbings with a 
burnisher; also, the skin of goats or kids prepared in a similar manner. 

Velour. A French term signifying velvet, being derived from Latin 
villosus, shaggy. Among old English writers, and in the entries made in 
the lists of the royal wardrobes of England, the terms velure and velures 
are found, as well as vallonettes, mentioned by Chaucer. At this time the 



VEL COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 367 

fabric was a species of linen plush. At present, velour denotes a cotton 
curtain fabric, woven with a coarse stiff pile on the terry cloth principle, 
alike on both sides, and dyed in solid colors. 

Velure. A cotton fabric woven with a thick and soft pile, used for 
curtains. [See Velour.] 

Velvet. [From Italian velluto, shaggy.] A silken fabric having a 
short dense piled surface. It is the type of the numerous forms of piled 
fabrics now made, the methods employed in the manufacture of which are 
noticed under Weaving, i Of the country whence it first came, or the 
people who were the earliest to hit upon the happy way of weaving it, 
nothing is known. We are probably indebted to Central Asia, or perhaps 
China for velvet as well as satin. It is not until the 14th century that any 
historical mention is made of this fabric, although fustian, which differs 
from velvet only in material, is mentioned as early as the middle of the 
13th century. The peculiar properties of velvet, the splendid yet softened 
depth of dye-color it exhibited, at once marked it out as a fit material for 
ecclesiastical vestments, royal and state robes, and sumptuous hangings; 
and among the most magnificent fabrics of mediaeval times were Italian 
velvets. These were in many ways most effectively treated for ornamen- 
tation, such as by varying the color of the pile, by producing pile of 
different lengths (pile upon pile, or double pile), by brocading with plain 
silk, with uncut pile, or with a ground of gold tissue. The most expensive 
velvets at this period were made at Genoa, Florence and Venice, and to the 
present day Genoa continues to produce rich velvet textures in vast quan- 
tities. Crefeld and Lyons are also centers of velvet manufacture. The 
first velvet mill in America was built in 1865, but as the stockholders failed 
to give it their personal attention, its existence was brief, the machinery ••• 
being sold in a few years to different manufacturers of spun silk. Hence 
until quite recently velvets in the United States have been an exclusive , 
foreign fabric.) At present, however, there are several factories in active 
operation, having been brought into existence by the increased duties on 
velvet under the late tariff act, which enables them to produce velvets in 
this country at a profit. The processes employed in the weaving of velvets 
are the same as in making plush, fustian, beaverteen, velvet and Wilton 
carpets. Its peculiar character is produced by the insertion of what seems 
to be short pieces of silk thread, secured under the weft thread, their ends 
standing upright and so close together as to completely conceal the founda- 
tion beneath. In weaving velvet, in addition to the ordinary warp and weft, 
there is an extra warp thread, called pile threads, arranged in the loom par- 
allel to the regular warp, and much longer, which in the progress of weaving 
are passed over a fine brass wires laid across the width of the fabric. The 
working of a treadle carries the pile threads down over the wire, forming 
a loop, in which position the whole row is fastened by the next throw of 
the weft. Another wire is placed in the same position for the next row of 



368 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. VEL 

loops across the fabric, and these are produced the same as the above. 
When the weaver has made a few inches of fabric the wires are removed. 
Each of them has a fine grove along its top surface, in which is run a 
sharp-pointed knife, thus cutting the loops, and leaving two ends of each 
one projecting above the fabric. The velvet is now trimmed evenly, 
brushed up, and dressed to produce a perfectly uniform and velvety pile. 
Fine qualities contain from 40 to 50 loops to an inch length of fabric, 
hence their production is exceedingly slow and laborious. In silk velvets 
the pile thread is organzine silk, which is the strongest and most lustrous 
used in weaving. There are two kinds of velvet which have the effect of 
being stamped or embossed. The real stamped velvet is comparatively 
of inferior quality, woven with a silk face and cotton back. The patterns 
are produced by means of stamping-irons which are applied to the face of 
the velvet under pressure. The effect is to cause the ground portions 
between the raised pattern to appear as if of satin make. Velvet broche 
is a superior fabric, with a design in the silk pile woven into the web, and 
not stamped. Ponson velvets are the fine, heavy grades used in cloak- 
making. Terry velvet is uncut velvet, woven entirely of silk, the loops 
presenting an appearance of fine ribs or cords running across the surface 
from side to side. Rubber velvet is not velvet, but is made by sprinkling 
powdered felt of any color over rubber cloth while the latter is hot and soft. 
The product looks like felt cloth, but is elastic, waterproof and exceedingly 
light. [See Embossed Velvet.] 

Velveteen. Cotton velvet. Velveteen is always of greater width than 
velvet proper, although woven in exactly the same manner. The making 
of these goods, for the most part, is in the hands of British manufacturers. 
All efforts to make them in the United States prior to 1890 were unsuccess- 
ful, although a few mills were established upon the passage of the late tariff 
act. However, large quantities of the raw grey cloth is imported and dyed 
here, such as the varieties known as " Vulcan," " H," and " Elberon." Dyers 
assert that the most difficult branch of black-dying upon cotton goods, is 
that employed for cotton velvets or velveteens, upon which it is desired to 
produce a rich, lustrous color. The process is long, tedious and uncertain, 
consisting of successive applications of sumac, acetate of iron, logwood and 
fustic, the end aimed at being the production of a black with a blush or violet 
bloom. The English dyers formerly held a monoply of this blue-black upon 
velvet as it is called,but of late years American dyers have developed into very 
formidable competitors. English Fast Pile Velveteen is a variety made in 
England after a new and superior method, insuring the fixity and firm ad- 
hesion of the pile, which sometimes wears out of the web when manufac- 
tured according to the original plan. The names given to it vary according 
to the fancy of the several manufacturers who produce it. Among them it 
is known as " Imperal," " Louis," " Brunswick finish," " Mancunium," and 
"Peacock." Velveteen Ribbons are cut in strips from fine grades of piece 
goods, and the edges having no selvage, are sized to prevent raveling. 



YES COLE'S DICTIONARY OE DRY GOODS. :)69 

They are made in lengths of twelve yards, the numbers running from one 
to forty. They are produced in a variety of colors, beside black, and the 
widths range from one, one and one-half, two up to ten, and then in even 
numbers up to twenty, and then to twenty-four, thirty and forty. 

Vest. [From vestment, clothing.] A waistcoat; also a lady's knit 
undershirt. [See Appendix "A."] 

Yictorine (vic-tor-ene' ). A lady's tippet made of feathers or fur. 

Vicuna (vi-cu'-na). A delicate all-wool dress fabric, produced in black 
and neutral colors. The commoner varieties are of the armure weave. 
Vicuna is the French name for the wool of an animal similar to the llama 
or mountain goat. Also called vigogne cloth. 



w 

Waban Netting. A netting of large mesh, especially adapted for 
draping pictures, easels, mantels and portieres. It is a thread net, 72 
inches in width, and is put up in 12 and 24-yard pieces. 

Wadding, A lap or fleece of cotton prepared by the carding engine, 
to the surface of which is applied a gelatinous coating. 

Waist. A garment covering the waist or trunk; one worn especially 
by children to which petticoats or drawers are attached; the body or bodice 
of a dress, whether separate from the skirt or joined to it; a corsage; a 
basque; a blouse. 

Wale. A ridge or rib rising above the surface of woven cloth, and ex- 
tending the entire length or width of the piece. The word has a similar 
origin with wale or "whale," a mark raised upon the skin by a blow. 

Warmus (pron. wawm'-mus). A heavy flannel jacket, worn in winter 
by farmers and other out-door laborers for the procurement of warmth. 
[See Jumper, Appendix "A."] 

Warp. The threads which are extended lengthwise in the loom, into 
which the weft is woven; also called chain and twist. Warp yarn is gen- 
erally stronger than weft, the hardness being obtained by extra twisting of 
the thread. Owing to this peculiarity, it is sometimes called "twist." [See 
Spinning.] 

Wash-Blonde. A name given to a species of narrow bobbinet or Brus- 
sels net, suitable for quillings. It was formerly produced from unbleached 
cotton and was termed Nankin and blonde net, from its yellow or blonde 
color. At present the material is dyed in several tints and distinguished 
by its narrow width. The quality of wash blonde, as well as of Brussels 
net, depends upon the smallness of the meshes, their equality in size, fine- 
ness of yarn, and the regularity of the hexagons. [See Bobbinet.] 
24 



370 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DR\ GOODS. WAT 

Watered. An effect produced upon gros grain silk by which the sur- 
face assumes a variety of shades, as if the cloth were covered with a multi- 
tude of waving lines, the transition from bright to dull effects giving beauty 
to the fabric. There are two methods of watering silk. It is known that if 
a silk tissue be pressed with a hot metal roller engraved with a vapory de- 
sign, that the design on the roller is reproduced on the tissue, which takes, 
on the portions affected, a distinct appearance without changing color. 
These, which might be termed grained or marbled effects, can be produced 
on goods of any width, ribbons or dress fabrics, rollers of the proper width 
being all that is necessary. The watered effect may also be produced by 
wetting the silk and expelling the air and moisture under great pressure. 
The air in trying to effect its escape, drives before it the moisture, and 
hence causes the appearance of the curiously tortuous lines, resembling 
waves. [See Moire.] 

Watteau Pleat (wat-tu ' ). An arrangement of the back of a wom- 
an's dress in which broad folds or pleats hang from the neck to the bottom 
of the skirt without interruption. A Watteau bodice is a style of woman's 
dress having a square opening at the neck, and presenting some resem- 
blance to the costumes in the paintings by the artist Watteau, at the begin- 
ning of the 18th century. 

Weaving. [From Anglo-Saxon weafan, to weave or fold about.] The 
art of forming cloth by the interlacing of yarn in a loom. Pliny gives the 
honor of the invention to the Egyptians, but its origin is really unknown, 
and was certainly long prior to that of authentic history. Homer, the Greek 
poet, who lived 600 B. C, gives an account of the heroine Penelope weav- 
ing at the loom. Penelope was the wife of the Greek hero Ulysses. Soon 
after his marriage he was unfortunately summoned to the Trojan war. 
Unwilling to go, he feigned madness — yoked an ox and a horse together, 
and resorted to other ruses to prove his lunacy, but the commander dis- 
covered his deceit by means of his affectionate care for his only child, 
Telemachus. Obliged to go he distinguished himself as a warrior, and was 
not released until 20 years had passed. Having tarried so long, many 
chieftains of Ithaca and 'the islands round about wooed the fair Penelope 
to marry; they behaved wantonly, wasting the substance of Ulysses, insult- 
ing his son, and corrupting the maidservants. But the faithful and tender 
Penelope yearned for the god-like Ulysses and bade her impatient suitors 
again and again to wait, before hastening her nuptials, until she had woven 
a winding sheet for old Icarius, the father of Ulysses, that her threads 
might not be lost. But every night the artful Penelope undid the piece 
which she had woven by day, so that the web was always unfinished. This 
she did for three years, till her maids revealed the secret to her wooers. 
Robbed at last of her pretext for delay she was in sore straits, till she 
was relieved by the arrival of Ulysses after an absence of twenty years. 
He slew the wooers, and the long-parted husband and wife were united 



WEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 371 

once more. Joy! Wassail! Finis! This Homeric story is the first histori- 
cal mention made by any writer of the art of weaving, and Penelope was 
worshipped by the Greeks and Romans as the goddess of the loom. 

The Egyptians undoubtedly attained wonderful excellence in weaving, 
the antiquity of which is fully attested by the existence of the fine linens 
with which the mummies taken from the pyramids were enwrapped. Many 
Biblical references prove the Hebrews to have been equally facile; and 
Persia, Babylon, and other ancient nations likewise earned fame in this 
particular. The Mexicans spun and wove cotton, and the Peruvians 
both cotton and wool, into fabrics which the Spaniards found in every way 
equal to anything they had known at home. The Peruvians, in particular, 
were adepts at weaving. When Pizarro made the conquest of their 
country in 1533, he found in the empire of the Incas four species of 
animals little different from each other, which he called the sheep of their 
country, because of their general resemblance to the Spanish (merino) 
sheep, and the similar utilization of its fiber. Two of the species, the llama 
and alpaca, had been in a state of domestication from time immemorial, 
the remaining varieties, the vicuna and the guanaca, living in a wild state 
in the fastnesses of the Andes. Specimens of this Peruvian cloth, still pre- 
served, reveals a fineness of texture and an exquisite finish which modern 
ingenuity rarely equals. Both sides of these cloths were woven alike. The 
delicacy of the texture gave it the luster of silk, while the brilliancy of 
the dyes employed excited the envy and admiration of European artisans. 
The North American Indians, when first discovered, possessed no know- 
ledge whatever of the art of spinning or weaving, their garments being 
confined entirely to the skins of animals. The Navajos were not acquain- 
ted with weaving processes until after their contact with the early Spanish 
missionaries. 

According to Pliny, the Assyrians believed Queen Semiramis to have 
been the inventress of weaving. Minerva, in many pieces of ancient stat- 
uary, is represented with a distaff, evidently for the purpose of conveying 
the impression that it was she who first taught men the art of spinning; and 
this honor is given by the Egyptians to Isis; by the Mohammedans to a son 
of Japeth; by the Chinese to the consort of their emperor Yas; and by the 
Peruvians to Mamcella, wife of Manco-Capac, their first sovereign. These 
traditions serve only to carry the invaluable art of spinning and weaving 
back to an extremely remote period — thousands of years, no doubt, prior 
to the writing of the first book. According to Melik Cassam Mirza, of 
Tebriz, Persia, the weaving of silk was first practiced in China, in the prov- 
ince of Kiang Nau, about the year of the world 1743, or 2257 years B. C. 
From other authentic sources we learn that cotton had its origin in India, 
and that shawls and carpets were first made in Persia. 

In Great Britian the early inhabitants were thoroughly acquainted with 
the making of cloth, and the weavers of London form probably the most 
ancient guild in Europe. Their occupation gave rise to many surnames, 



372 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WEA 

which are easily recognized in the United States at the present time. For 
ages wool was the staple of England, and thousands of busy operatives 
were employed in the various processes of spinning and weaving necessary 
before the wool could be transferred from the back of the sheep to the back 
of the man. At every step, proper names indicative of the calling of those 
who bore them sprang up, so that, were we ignorant of the fact that our 
ancestors, the Saxons, dealt in wool and made cloth, we might draw per- 
fectly correct and legitimate conclusions as to the business, its extent and 
various departments, from the family names still surviving. In the first 
place, the sheep were cared for by the Shepard or Sheepherd, a family 
name which, with variations of spelling, is extremely common both in this 
country and England. Shearing was the first operation requiring either 
delicacy or skill, and Shearer, Shearman, Shurman and similar names 
bespeak their own ancestry. The wool was then placed in bags, made by 
the sackers or canvassers, and was ready for the merchant, an individual 
often known as Stapler, Wool, Wooler, Woolman or Woolsey, or in French 
as Lanier or Lanyer. He consigned it to the care of persons who trans- 
ported it from place to place on the backs of pack horses or in vehicles, 
and were thus known as the Packers, the Carters or the Carriers. The wool 
was then handed over to the Carders and Combers, or Kempers and Kem- 
sters, as they were variously called, and passed from their hands to those 
of the Spinners, who used implements made by the Spindlers and Slayers, 
afterwards going to the Weavers, Weevers, Webbs, Webbers or feminine 
Websters. The cloth was next " teased " to bring out the nap, a process 
done by the Teasers, Tosers, Teazelers, or Taylors, when the woolen cloth 
was finished and ready for the Dyer, Litter, or Lister. The Fullers, Ful- 
lertons, Fullersons and Fullmans undertook the process of shrinking the 
cloth, in which they were assisted by the Walkers, who trod it with their 
feet, accompanied by the Beaters, Beatermans, Bates, Batts and Battsman, 
who used sticks, bats and mallets instead of their heels and toes. The 
designation of the process is seen to give a name to all engaged in a spec- 
ial work, just as at present, and further to be adopted as a family name by 
some who perhaps attained notable excellence over their fellows, or were 
led by chance or caprice to adopt the title of their calling as their own 
surname. 

It will doubtless interest many to learn that the domestic title " wife " 
is derived from " to weave," as she was distinguished so much from the 
balance of her family in the olden time by her labors at the loom. The 
Saxon word for weave was wefan, and was also applied to a woman who 
worked at the loom and made a web. The adoption of the name " wife " 
from the art of weaving is a natural sequence to that of giving the name of 
" spinster " to an unmarried woman — for the girl was supposed to spin the 
yarn, which when woven into clothing, she was to wear in the future as the 
garments of a wife. For untold centuries preceding Cartwright's invention 
of the power loom, each household was to a large degree the manufac- 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



373 



turers of their own cloth and the makers of their own clothing. It was the 
common practice of the husband and sons to tend the sheep and cultivate 
the flax; of the " spinsters " to prepare the yarns, by the aid of distaff and 
spinning wheel; and of the wife, on account of her greater experience, to 
weave the web. 

Although the hand-loom has latterly been very largely superseded by 
the power-loom, yet it still holds an important place in the weaving of 
some kinds of textiles, for the reason that it is simple and can be readily 
altered to suit the requirements of any particular branch of woven fabrics 
The wooden loom of the ancient Egyptians, as represented in pictures 
and sculptures 3,000 years old, bears a singular resemblance to those now 
in use. The upright loom of Penelope differed but slightly from the hand 
looms of the Gobelin factory in France, where some of the finest textures 
in the world are wrought. In Palestine, also, the weaver had an upright 
loom, but beginning at the bottom and working upwards, he was obliged to 
stand. During the mediaeval period the loom in England was horizontal, as 
is shown in the accompanying illustration. 





A LOOM OF THE IITH CENTURY. 



HAND LOOM OF THE l8TH CENTURY 



For figured goods, where irregular and complicated order of weft 
threads of several colors are used, the hand-loom is the best adapted, 
simply because the weaver can more easily control its motions so as to 
make them accord with the required method of coloring the design. Plush 
fabrics and various classes of tapestry cloths, carpets, and figured shawls 
are also, to some extent, woven on the hand-loom, but its special role is 
certainly pattern production. It seems almost incredible that so many 
varieties could be made in the material and design of fabrics by the aid of 
so simple apparatus. We have only to remember, however, how many 
melodious combinations can be made on a scale of seven notes, and what 



374 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



an illimitable literature has been made on an alphabet of twenty-six letters. 
Keeping this in mind we can see how innumerable combinations may be 
made by interchanging warp and weft. Each year there are new surfaces in 




FANCY COTTON LOOM. 



variety. All, though, resolve themselves into the original elementary com- 
binations possible to the hand-loom. Methods and motive power grow 
with the ages, but the fundamental principle of forming textiles has re- 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



375 



mained unchanged since the day of that forgotten patriarch who first passed 
crossway threads between two sheets of long ones, and combed them into 
place with the primitive reed. 

In weaving, two sets of yarn are used — the warp and the weft. The 
warp consists of the yarn (or threads) which extends in parallel lines from 
end to end, the whole length of the web. The weft yarn crosses and inter- 
sects the w arp at right angles and fills up the breadth of the web. Weaving 
is thus distinct from knitting, netting, plaiting or felting. Apparently the 
varieties of woven cloth are endless, but these differences are due only in 




FLANNEL AND JEANS LOOM. 



part to the method of weaving. The textile materials employed, the 
methods of spinning and preparing the yarns, the dye colors resorted to, 
and the finishing processes may vary indefinitely, and so contribute to give 
variety of character to the resultant product. The complexities of the art 
of weaving, in itself, are reducible to a few fundamental operations, which 
do not of necessity demand intricate machinery. For producing the India 
muslins of the present day with their marvelous delicacy of texture, and 
also for the elaborate and sumptous shawls of Cashmere the native weavers 
have only rude and simple looms. With all our boasted civilization and 
modern appliances we have been as yet unable to rival the Hindoo and 
Other "heathen" nations in the production of textile fabrics. But patient 



376 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



and tedious hand-work, in these instances, is devoted to produce effects 
which modern machinery can imitate with almost as great rapidity as 
in the case of the plainest fabric. The series of inventions which have led 
up to the ingenious looms of the present day, began with the invention of 
the fly-shuttle in 1733, and culminated with the Jacquard appliance in 1802; 
the principle of which has never since been improved upon. Woven 
fabrics may be divided into five main classes: Plain, figured, gauze, 
double, and pile weaving. Laces being formed on an entirely different 
structure, are disregarded. [See Lace.] 

Plain Weaving. — This class, which includes calico, muslin, linen and 
like fabrics, will on examination be found to consist of two sets of threads, 
the one intersecting the other at right angles, with each single thread pass- 
ing alternately over one and under one in regular order. 




FANCY WORSTED LOOM FOR WEAVING DOUBLE-WIDTH, HIGH-GRADE 

WORSTEDS. 



Figure Weaving. — This is a very comprehensive group, consisting of 
the twills, sateens, damasks, brocades, counterpanes, cords, and almost all 
fancy cloths. To produce a complicated and irregular pattern, a large 
number of different s*heds of warps must be provided, and to secure with 
promptitude and certainty such" manifold and complicated sheddings, 
many of the most elegant,and ingenious devices ever applied to mechanism 
have been invented. [See Loom, Jacquard, Damask, Twill, Brocade, 
Home Weaving.] 

Double Weaving. — By either of the methods above described there are 
but two ways of producing a heavy fabric — either the use of thick, bulky 
threads, or the use of an increased number of fine ones. If bulky threads 
are used, the fabric must present an appearance of coarseness, no matter 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



377 



what may be the order of interweaving. If fine threads are used, the order 
of interweaving prevents the production of anything but a light weight 
cloth, hence for many purposes the weaving of double cloth is important. 
It permits the formation of a background of cotton or other material, with 
a surface of finest texture; and it affords great scope for the formation of 
colored patterns, allowing also the production of double-faced textures, 
which may or may not correspond in pattern on both sides, according to 
pleasure. It, moreover, increases the weight of woven fabrics, and is the 
basis of tubular weaving, such as is practiced in making hose, tubes, seam- 




BISF" 



CARPET LOOM. 

less bags, etc. There are three classes of double weaving: The first con- 
sists of double warp surfaces, with the weft in the center; in the second it 
is the reverse — a warp center and two weft surfaces; in the third case the 
cloth may consist of two distinct sets of warp and weft throughout, and 
practically be two separate cloths. These, if the weaver binds them 
together at the selvages, become woven tubes; or, if at regular intervals 
over the surface a warp or a weft thread passes from one side into the other, 
they are united as one solid cloth. Whenever double cloths are resorted to 
there is a destined object in view — to produce weight alone, or at a small 



378 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



cost, to make a fine surface on a fabric of a given weight, to secure addi- 
tional strength, warmth and wearing powers, or sometimes for the purpose 
of ornamentation solely, by causing the threads to exchange places and so 
form figures. In addition to double cloths pure and simple there are many 




others known as "three-ply," "four-ply," etc., implying that the cloth is not 
merely a double, but a three or four-fold cloth. It does not always follow, 
though, that a three or four-ply cloth means that there are three or fouir 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



379 



distinct fabrics woven together, though that may be so; there may be two 
perfect and complete cloths and filling between them, which is not in itself, 
strictly speaking, a complete cloth; or it may be that two double-faced 
cloths are combined, as is the case with some very thick, bulky cloths which 
are used for covering rollers and other purposes. 




Gauze Weaving. — Hitherto weaving methods have been dealt with in 
which the warp threads run parallel with each other, and are intersected 
at right angles by the weft. In gauze weaving, effects midway between 



380 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



lace and plain cloth are produced, the warp threads being made to inter- 
twist more or less among themselves, producing a light, elastic, open text- 
ure. Plain gauze is simply a plain, open weave, in which two contiguous 
threads of warp make a half twist around each other at every insertion of 
a weft, the fabric being in appearance similar to a knitted fabric. 

Pile Weaving. — Pile fabrics are woven with a looped or otherwise 
raised surface — a class of cloth not frequently met with in cotton, but 
generally in the silk and carpet trades. "Looped" pile is descriptive of 
any fabric in which the woven loops remain uncut, as in Brussels and 




RIBBON LOOM, 36 PIECE CAPACITY. 



tapestry carpet, and in terry velvet and cloaking. When these loops are 
cut in the finished texture, then the material is a "cut" pile, such as ordi- 
nary velvet, plush, fustian, wilton and velvet carpet, etc. For weaving 
ordinary pile fabrics, two sets of warp threads are required, the regular 
beam warp and the pile warp. The foundation, or back, may be woven 
plain or twilled. In weaving the foundation, at every third pick a small 
round wire is partially woven into the cloth, the pile warp being brought 
over and around this wire, thus forming a row of loops across the web. If 



WEA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 381 

a looped pile is desired it only remains to pull the wires out from behind 
and weave them in again in front, as the work proceeds. But if a cut pile 
is being made, then the loops must be cut along the top of the wires before 
slipping them out of the cloth. In some cases the wires are furnished with 
a knife-edge on the top side, and the loops are thus cut as the wires are 
withdrawn. The pile thus produced is afterward made uniform and level 
by shearing with a machine which in principle is very similar to a common 
lawn mower. This shearing operation was formerly accomplished by 
hand, with the use of narrow, pointed scissors, usually about two feet in 
length. By long practice the workmen became so skillful in wielding these 
that there is no perceptible difference in the appearance of the old hand 
work and the present machine sheared product. [See Terry Cloth, 
Pile Fabrics, Velvet, Carpet.] 

Cloth does not, as many imagine come from the loom in a finished 
state. If it is woolen cloth it has a bare, rough, fuzzy look, and is at this , 
stage termed the raw thread. After leaving the loom it requires to be 
scoured and washed; burled — to remove any knots, burrs or imperfections; 
fulled; teasled and sheared; and boiled and scalded to impart a luster to it, 
and also to prevent spotting from rain. After this it is dyed (if not pre- 
viously done in the yarn), and finally pressed between polished iron plates 
in a powerful hydraulic press, after which it is folded or rolled and is 
ready for shipment. When cotton cloth is taken from the loom, it has a sur- 
face covering of minute hairs or fuzz, which if allowed to remain would 
interfere with the uniform application of the printed colors, or dull the 
distinct appearance of the woven pattern. This surface fuzz is gotten rid 
of by the operation of singeing, by which the cloth is drawn over a red 
hot iron or copper bar, or through a series of gas jets. To accomplish 
this, the cloth is first brought into contact with roller brushes, which raise 
the fuzz on the surfaces, then it passes lightly over the white hot metal bar 
or through the gas jets, and is wound on to a roller. This process is 
repeated twice on the face of the cloth to be printed, and once on the 
back. When well singed, cotton cloth undergoes the operation of bleach- 
ing, and is thereafter calendered. [See Teasling Calendering, Bleach- 
ing, Fulling.] 

The weaving of fabrics in our day of magic machinery is comparatively 
easy and inexpensive*, and an article well woven is already half sold; but 
under the present commercial system of placing mill products upon the 
market, the worst handicap on manufacturing enterprise is the heavy 
charge of commissions. The most studied economy at the mill is often 
defeated by the most elaborate extravagance outside. The cost of selling 
goods bears an enormous disproportion to the cost of making them. 

*The bulk of the matters required for dyeing fabrics are also comparatively inexpensive. 
As is well known, aniline or coal tar colors are extracted from common soft coal. One 
pound of the latter will yield sufficient magenta to color 300 yards of flannel, enough ver- 
millioa for 2500 yards, aurine for 120 yards, and alizarin sufficient for 155 yards of Turkey 
red calico. [See Aniline, Alizarin.] 



382 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



There is a larger aggregation of capital engaged in the production of 
textile fabrics than in any other manufacturing industry in the United 
States. Of carpets we are the largest producers in the world, and in design, 
colors and quality, our goods are quite equal to anything made in Europe 
of competing grades. Of silk, we exceed in amount the product of Eng- 
land and Germany combined, and are second only to France. 

The erection of a modern cotton mill or woolen factory is on a far 
more comprehensive scale than in the early days of manufacturing. The 




BURLING AND SPECKING MACHINE, FOR REMOVING BURRS, KNOTS 
AND SPECKS FROM THE FACE OF FABRICS. 



new factories, covering large areas and constructed on the principle of 
good light, temperature and ventilation, are as widely different from the 
old style as the modern residence is from the homely cabin of the frontiers- 
man. The old mills were almost wholly of a narrow type, while many of 
the textile establishments now erected vary from 100 to 125 feet in width, 
being necessary in many cases for the high stories characteristic of the 
present building age. Perhaps the most notable difference in the modern 
mill structure, is the unusual facilities for natural light. Light from com- 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



383 



bustion is comparatively poor and costly. In many of the weaving de- 
partments of mills built years ago and poorly windowed, the constant use of 
gas or oil for lighting purposes so overheats the air that the ordinary oper- 




LIGHT RUNNING SILK LOOM. 



ator loses physical vigor. In a wide mill, with high stories, the windows 
must necessarily be large in order to secure good natural light, occupying 
at least 40 per cent, of the side walls, and leaving but little width of the 



384 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



brick work between them. Added to the advantage obtained by high 
walls, mills nowadays are especially designed with the purpose of securing 
good sanitary conditions, entire mills being heated by means of a fan, 




CREASING AND FOLDING MACHINE, CAPACITY, 6oO YARDS 
OF 6-4 GOODS PER HOUR. 



WEA 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



385 



which sucks in fresh air that, passing through steam pipes, is blown 
through flues and distributed in all parts of the building. This system 
from a health standpoint is far superior to the old methods. The "Pacific" 




25 



WINDING MACHINE, CAPACITY, 600 YARDS OF 6-4 
GOODS PER HOUR. 



386 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



Mills, at Lawrence, Mass., cover with its walls fifty-four acres of flooring de- 
voted to machinery — 180,000 spindles for cotton and 25,000 for wool; 6,800 
looms for weaving cottons and worsteds, and thirty printing machines; 
6,000 operatives are employed, with a pay roll of $2,000,000 per anumn. 




HIGH SPEED SILK LOOM, WITH CAPACITY FOR WEAVING GOODS IN 
WIDTHS OF 20 TO 60 INCHES. 

The weaving industry of the United States offers perhaps as striking an 
illustration as any of the actual displacement of hand labor by machinery. 



Wea 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



38? 



With a hand-loom, a weaver used to weave from sixty to eighty picks per 
minute in weaving muslin of good quality, with twenty threads of warp to 
each one-quarter square inch. A power-loom now weaves 180 picks per 
minute of the same kind of cloth. Formerly a weaver tended but one loom, 
now one weaver minds all the way from four to twelve power looms, ac- 




cording to the grade of goods. While the cost of labor is somewhat higher 
now than it was formerly, yet the expense of weaving has been reduced by 
the greater productive power of the machinery. The weaving of print- 
cloth twenty-eight inches wide and seven yards to the pound, now costs less 
than one cent per yard. The cost of weaving muslins and sheetings thirty to 



388 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WEA 



thirty-six inches wide and weighing three to four yards to the pound is 
from one and one-half to two cents per yard. The cost of weaving heavy 
muslin thirty-six inches wide, and the heavy drill thirty inches wide, each 
weighing from two and three-fourths to three yards to the pound is about one 
and one-fourth cents per yard. To weave the finest sheeting and muslins 
the cost is two to three cents per yard. This is the cost of the mill labor in 
weaving these fabrics, including wages and salaries of every one employed, 
but does not include the cost of the raw material, nor the processes of 
bleaching, printing or dyeing. [See Factory, Silk.] 




FANCY COTTON LOOM. 

Weft. The woof or filling of cloth. The threads that cross the warp 
from selvage to selvage. 

Whalebone. The inaccurate term applied to the horny blades which 
take the place of teeth in the mouths of balaena whales. These blades are 
from three to twelve and fifteen feet long, and serve the purpose of retain- 
ing the small fishes which compose its food. It is said from 250 to 300 of 
these plates or bones are found in the mouth of a full-grown whale, and 
that they weigh nearly a ton. Whalebone is not bone, but bears a strong 
resemblance to the horns of cattle and the nails and hair of other animals. 
In preparing the raw blades for commercial purposes, they are first boiled 



WHA COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 389 

in water for several hours, until soft enough to cut easily with a knife. The 
workmen then cuts them into different lengths and thicknesses, after which 
they are dyed black. Whales furnishing the right quality of whalebone 
have become very scarce of late years, owing to the steady annual slaughter 
which has been kept up since 1854. The catch of whalebone by our whaling 
vessels for the year 1854 was 3,445,200 lbs; 1860, 1,337,650 lbs; 1870, 708,000 
lbs; 1880, 454,028 lbs; 1891, 309,710 lbs. The average price of whalebone 
in the raw state for the year 1854 was 34 cents per pound; 1860, 55 cents per 
pound; 1870, 85 cents per pound; 1880, $2 per pound; 1890, $4.22 per pound; 
1892, $5.50 per pound. These figures show that the supply is rapidly dimin- 
ishing, and that the use of whalebone for the many purposes where it is 
now considered indispensable must soon be a thing of the past. The entire 
product could be consumed many times over, for any one of the uses for 
which it is particularly adapted. Prices being out of all reason, the corset 
and dressmaking trades have been obliged to cast around for substitutes 
which would answer the purpose as a stiffener for dress waists and corsets. 
French horn has been utilized to a moderate degree, but its high cost has 
limited its general use. Coraline is another article which is largely used. 
Watchspring steel for dress stays has probably received as general recog- 
nition as anything, and is to-day doubtless the leader for such uses. The 
material known as featherbone is also used to a large extent. It is con- 
ceded, however, that nothing has yet been produced which answers all pur- 
poses as well as the old reliable whalebone. 

Whipcord. A style of weaving in which large rounded cords extend- 
ing the full length of the fabric, form the pattern; found only in men's 
suitings and dress fabrics. The whipcord weave originally was used ex- 
clusively in riding-breeches, being an imitation of corduroy; subsequently 
it was used for riding-trousers, and when the regulation trouserings became 
so trite in design as to be virtually a repetition of what had been frequently 
seen among the staples, some New York swell ordered a suit of whipcord. 
It found immediate favor as a suiting fabric, and very shortly came to be 
copied in ladies' woolen dress fabrics. 

Widow's Weeds. "Weeds" signifies a garment, or a dress. The 
term is now almost obsolete, save in its retention to describe the mourning 
dress of a widow. The custom for widows to wear a peculiar style of cap 
is of Roman origin, and the wearing of some sort of weeds was compulsory 
for ten months. The term "weeds" first began to be used during the middle 
ages to signify an entire dress. 

Wigan. A very coarse and heavy sized cotton cloth, used for lining 
the bottom of ladies' dresses, in order to make them keep the shape de- 
sired. Wigan was the cloth upon which was formerly fixed the hair of a 
wig, or periwig, being stiffened so that it would fit the head in a comfort- 
able and proper manner. 

Wt>ad» A plant formerly cultivated for the blue coloring matter de- 



390 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WOO 

rived from its leaves, but is now used only with indigo as a ferment in the 
vat. It is inferior to the coloring matter derived from indigo, the latter 
having entirely superseded it for dyeing purposes. 

Wool. A form of hair distinguished by its soft and wavy or curly 
structure, and by its highly serrated or scaly surface. It would be idle to 
attempt to determine the vexed question of precedence between wool and 
flax, or to attempt to determine whether the honor of first manufacturing 
wool belongs to the Greeks or Egyptians, for both of which nations it has 
been claimed. It is sufficient to know that wool has been in use for cloth- 
ing fiom a prehistoric period, for wherever traces of man are found, there 
we are almost sure to find the remains of sheep. Among the interesting 
relics of the lake-dwellers have been found fragments of woven woolen 
cloth, and the barrows of the early Britons have likewise contained bodies 
wrapped in woolen cloths, the cloth frequently not being woven but simply 
plaited. Throughout the history of Greece and Rome the culture of sheep 
was second to no other occupation in importance, and was mixed up with 
their religion, their commerce, and indeed with all the relations of their 
life. From this time downwards until the rise of the cotton manufacture, 
wool formed the principal staple in the commerce of the world, and con- 
tributed prosperity and splendor to unnumbered nations and cities. Next 
to cotton, wool is the most important of textile fibers, and from the earliest 
dawn of human history has formed a striking feature in the condition of 
mankind. Owing to the ease with which it may be made into thread, and 
to the comfort derived from clothing of woolen texture, it would naturally 
be one of the very first textiles used by man as a covering to shield him 
from the elements. The testimony of all ancient records goes to prove the 
high antiquity of woolen textures and the early importance of sheep. While 
sheep are by far the most important producers of wool, they are, however, 
not the only animals which yield wool employed for industrial purposes. 
The alpaca, the llama, the Angora goat, and the camel are all wool-pro- 
ducers; while the Cashmere goat of the Himalayan mountains yields the 
most costly wool in the world. At what point it can be said that an animal 
fiber ceases to be hair and becomes wool, it is impossible to determine, be- 
cause in every characteristic the one class by imperceptible gradations 
merges into the other, so that a continuous chain can be formed from the 
finest and softest merino to the rigid bristles of the wild boar. 

As has already been indicated, the distinction between wool and hair 
lies chiefly in the great fineness, softness and waved delicacy of woolen 
fiber, combined with a highly serrated surface. Upon these minute points 
of difference the value of wool in a great measure depends, especially with 
regard to the variety of its applications. If each fiber were straight and 
smooth, as in the case of hair, it would not retain the twisted state given to 
it by spinning, but would rapidly untwist when relieved from the force of 
the spinning-wheel; but the wavy condition causes the fibers to become en- 
tangled with each other, and the little projecting points of the scales hook 



WOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 391 

into each other and hold the fibers in close contact. Moreover, the deeper 
these scales fit into one another the closer becomes the structure of the 
thread, and consequently of the cloth made of it. This peculiarity also 
gives to wool the quality of felting. [See Felting, Broadcloth.] These 
scales or serrations are most numerous, acute and pointed in fine wools, as 
many as 2,800 per inch having been counted in specimens of the finest 
Saxony wool. In Leicester wool, which is long and bright, the scales are 
fewer in number, counting about 1800, and are also less pronounced in 
character, the fiber presenting a smoother and less wavy appearance. In 
inferior wools the serrations fall as low as 500 per inch. A similar differ- 
ence may be noted in the fineness of the fibers: Saxony lamb's wool has a 
diameter of from 1-1500 to 1-1800 of an inch, while Texas "coarse" may 
rise to a diameter of 1-275 of an inch. In length of staple wool also varies 
greatly, attaining in "combing" wools a length of 15 to 20 inches. As a rule 
the fine felting wools are short in staple, these constituting the "carding" or 
"woolen" yarn wools. The longer are lustrous and comparatively straight, 
thus being more suitable for "combing" or "worsted" wools. The latter 
approach mohair and alpaca in their characters, being spun and prepared 
by the same machinery. 

It becomes necessary here to indicate the specific difference between 
worsted and woolen yarns and cloths. In a general way it may be said 
that woolen yarns are those made from short wools possessed of high felt- 
ing qualities, which are prepared by a process of carding, in which the 
fibers are as far as possible crossed and interlaced with each other, form- 
ing a sort of light, fluffy yarn, which suits the material when woven into 
cloth for being brought into the semi-felted condition, by fulling, which is 
the distinguishing characteristic of woolen cloth. On the other hand, 
worsted yarns are generally made from the long and lustrous varieties of 
wool, the fibers, instead of being carded, are so combed as to bring them as 
far as possilbe to lie parallel to each other, the yarn being spun into a 
compact, smooth, and level thread, which when woven into cloth is not 
fulled or felted. Worsted yarn requires to be harder twisted, because 
the fibers have not the felting qualities of the woolen, and hence would 
be liable to untwist and not wear well. The surface of a woolen fab- 
ric is soft, oily, and pleasant to the touch, but a worsted surface is 
hard and slippery, and is therefore unpleasant in feeling. Each has its 
merits and defects. The felting quality of woolens causes the fabric to 
to draw together or shrink when wet, a defect which can only be over- 
come by special care in washing, which is seldom possible to command. 
A worsted fabric is much less affected by water, because the structure 
of its fibers precludes much drawing together. At all points, however, 
woolen and worsted yarns as thus defined cut into each other to some ex- 
tent — some woolens being made from longer wool than some worsteds 
and vice versa; while fulling or felting is a process done in all degrees, 
from a very little to a great deal, woolens sometimes not being at all 



392 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WOO 

fulled, while to some worsteds a felted finish is given. The fundamen- 
tal distinction between the two rests in the crossing and interlacing of 
the fibers in preparing woolen yarn while for worsted yarn the fibers 
are treated by processes designed to bring them into a smooth, 
parallel relationship to each other. Broadcloth, doeskin, cassimere, 
kersey, cheviot, frieze, etc., are representatives of the woolen class; 
while corkscrew, diagonal, serge, rep, etc., represent a few of the 
worsted class. Hosiery forms a class apart, as do also the wools used 
in the manufacture of carpets, shawls, alpaca and mohair textures. The 
range of woolen and worsted manufacture is very wide, the raw material 
for one class not being at all suitable or fitted for the other. Much more 
than in the case of any other textile industry, we have in the wool trade 
practically a series of separate and distinct industries, each with a differ- 
ent class of raw wool. The main distinctions are (1) carding wools, in 
which felting qualities are desirable; (2) combing wools, requiring length of 
staple and brightness of fiber, for making hard-spun, non-felting worsteds; 
and (3) carpet and knitting wools, in which a long and strong and some- 
what coarse staple is the essential quality. The wool market is supplied 
from almost every quarter of the globe, the qualities and varieties being 
numerous. The world's production for the year 1891 is given as follows: 

POUNDS. 

Europe: 

Russia ._ • -. 291,500,000 

Great Britain and Ireland .. 147,475,000 

France 124,803,000 

Spain 66,138,000 

Germany 54,894,000 

Hungary 43,146,000 

Italy 21,385,000 

Austria 11,155X00 

Portugal 10,362,C00 

Belgium.. 4,409,000 

Sweden 3,307,000 ■ 

All other Europe 8,818,000 

Total Europe 787,392,000 

North America : 

United States __. 307,100,000 

British North American Provinces 12,000,000 

South America: 

Argentine Republic 376,700,000 

Brazil ._. 1,875,000 

Peru 6,700,000 

Uruguay 42,000,000 

Australasia ...1 550,000,000 

Asia: 

British East Indies , 72,000,000 

Russia ..-.: .... 66,000,000 

Afghanistan, i.Belucl>istan and Thibet exports to India l'igDQVOOO 



WOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 393 

Asia-. pounds. 

Mesopotamia 31,555,000 

Persia (exports to India) 3,470,000 

Airica : 

Natal C ° l0Dy 5 128,681,600 

Egypt 2,800,000 

All other countries 48,000,000 

Total production of the world 2,456,733,600 

The consumption of wool in Europe and North America for 1891 is 
estimated at 1,944,000,000 pounds. Of this stupendous amount, England 
used 487,000,000 pounds and North America 456,000,000 pounds. In 1880 
the capital invested in the wool manufacture in the United States was 
$159,000,000; in 1890 it was $320,000,000. During the ten years the cost of 
wool, etc., used, rose from $164,000,000 to $203,000,000, and the value of the 
products from $267,000,000 to $338,000,000. The greatest wool market in 
the United States is Boston, with Philadelphia a good second. The centers 
of the manufacturing industry are New England, Pennsylvania, New York 
and New Jersey. In the value of products Pennsylvania leads all the 
states, its figures for 1890 being $89,000,000; Massachusetts comes next with 
$72,000,000, and then New York with $53,000,000. 

Wool comes into the mill dirty, greasy, burry, sometimes washed by 
the farmer, but generally just as it is sheared from the sheep, a filthy and 
unwholesome thing, giving little sign of the beautiful, flossy substance into 
which it is soon converted. It must be first sorted, each fleece containing 
from six to eight qualities, which the careful manufacturer separates, de- 
voting each quality for the purpose to which it is best suited. This operation 
of sorting is one of the most important about a woolen mill. No skill in card- 
ing, spinning, weaving, or finishing can possibly produce a soft or fine piece 
of goods from coarse, hard fiber. When woolen thread is to be spun to the 
length of 15,360 yards to the pound, or in the case of worsted thread to twice 
that number of yards to a pound, everything depends upon care in the selec- 
tion of the fleece and in the sorting. The operation is very far removed from 
being a mere mechanical process of selecting and separating the wool from 
certain regions of the fleece, because in each individual fleece qualities and 
proportions differ, and it is only by long years of experience that a sorter is 
enabled, almost as it were by instinct, rightly to divide up his lots by min- 
ute gradations, m order to produce even qualities of raw material. These 
sorts are impregnated with a greasy substance called the yolk or suint, 
caused by the animal secretions and the _perspiration of the skin, which 
must be completely eradicated. The elimination of the yolk, dirt and for- 
eign substances common to all wool results in. a shrinkage of from 50 to 70 
per cent. After scouring, the wool has to be burred and oiled before it is 
in a condition to be carded, Wqolen yams are exclusively made by the 
process of carding. The/ object o£ this oiperatjon is ; to Separate and equally 
distribute a mass of wool into a long, continuous, uniform lap. To prepare 



394 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WOO 

it for spinning, this lap must now be divided into a series of equal strips, 
and these in turn condensed sufficiently compact to uwr winding on a bob- 
bin. The mule-frame is employed for spinning woolen yarns, being the 
same in principle as the spinning-mule used for fine counts of cotton yarn. 
[See Spinning.] Yarn as delivered from the mule in woolen spinning (or 
from the throstle in case of worsteds), is in the condition known ~s singles. 
For twisting the singles into yarn of two or more ply it is wound from two 
or three bobbins onto one. The twist is given in the reverse direction from 
that in which the singles are spun, and thereby the single is to some extent 
untwisted. Yarn of two, three, and five-ply, and upwards, are made. Some- 
times different sizes of yarn are twisted together; and yet again, as is often 
the case, yarns may be made of different fibers, such as wool and cotton, 
or wool and silk, etc. Numerous variations of the method of twisting are 
employed to produce loops, knots, and other irregularities in yarn, for con- 
venience in weaving fancy textures. 

Worsted yarn, as has been explained, is made from long wool fibers 
brought as far as possible into a level parallel condition. The first opera- 
tion consists in forming a long uniform sliver, somewhat similar to the lap 
of carded cotton, except that the fibers lie more nearly parallel and not 
crossed and mixed as in the latter. The sliver as delivered from the comb- 
ing machine, is then subjected to the operation of drawing, the purpose of 
which is still further to equalize the strand of fiber, and to bring it into a 
sufficiently attenuated form for spinning. The principle of the drawing 
consists in running the sliver to a pair of rollers, which pass it on to a pair 
which revolve somewhat faster than the first, and to that extent draw out 
the sliver to smaller and finer proportions. Supposing the wool to pass 
through 6 such drawing frames, 6 slivers may be fed into the first and 
drawn out to to the dimensions of 1 ; the same may be repeated in the 
second; 5 slivers may be reduced to 1 in the third, 4 to 1 in the fourth and 
fifth frames; and in the roving frame, in which a little twist is given to the 
sliver before it is wound on the bobbin 2 slivers may be elongated into 1. 
Thus we have any length of sliver drawn out 6x6x5x4x4x2=5,760 times 
its original length. Treating the slivers in 9 drawing frames, we may have 
8X6X5X5X5X4X3X2X2=288,000 of extension. The bobbins of elongated 
and slightly twisted yarn is now ready for spinning on the throstle spinning 
frame, on which it is simultaneously drawn out to its ultimate length, 
twisted and wound on a bobbin. The doubling and subsequent treatment 
of worsted singles are the same as in the case of woolen yarn singles from 
the mule frame. [See Spinning.] . 

The bleaching of wool fiber by "sulphuring" is applied to yarns and 
woolen goods only when they are intended to be finished white or light 
bright colors. The method of "sulphuring" is to expose the goods in a closed 
room to the vapor of burning sulphur. The goods are hung on poles and 
when the room is full, a quantity of sulphur placed in very flat and broad 
dishes is allowed to burn away gradually on the floor of the room, every 



WOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 395 

aperture by which the vapor can escape being closed tight, so that it may 
permeate into every crevice of the goods. After exposure to this sulphur- 
ous acid vapor from six to twenty-four hours the goods are removed; 
and if to be finished a clear white, they are run through a bath containing 
some indigo carmine, which increases the brilliancy of the white. When 
they are to be dyed, they are treated with dilute sulphuric acid, thoroughly 
washed and dried. 

The bleaching of wool is not so complete as the bleaching of cotton or 
linen, by chlorine. In the case of cottons and linens the color is com- 
pletely destroyed, but in wool the sulphur merely combines with the color- 
ing matter of the fiber, and produces a colorless compound, from which the 
original color can again be revived, either by soaking the goods in a dilute 
acid or a dilute alkali, such as soda. Hence it is that new woolen cloth or 
garments, such as flannel, blankets and underclothing, though almost 
colorless when bought, yet after being washed several times, return to 
their natural yellow; for the washing soda used, or the soap which con- 
tains potash or soda, destroys the colorless compound produced by the 
sulphuring process and revives again the original color. 

It is roughly estimated that the world contains at least 600,000,000 
sheep, producing about 2,000,000,000 pounds of wool annually and con- 
tributing in wool to the wealth of mankind every year about $300,000,000. 
More than a hundred million sheep roam the vast plains of Australia. 
As many more are in the Argentine Republic and Uruguay. Sheep 
were first introduced into this country at Jamestown, Virginia in 1609, 
and in 1633 the animals were first brought to Boston. Ten years later 
a fulling mill was erected at Rowler, close by Boston, where first was begun 
cloth-making in the Western world. These first importations soon in- 
creased into considerable flocks, and America was well provided with 
sheep in 1801, the year in which the first Merinos were brought to this 
country. Merino sheep were for a time highly popular, and were im- 
ported in large numbers, more than 15,000 being brought over in 1810-11. 
[See Merino.] The principal breeds of sheep now raised in the United 
States, are the (so-called) Natives, the Spanish and the Saxon Merinos, the 
New Leicester, the Southdown, the Cotswold, the Cheviot and the Lincoln. 
Taken altogether there are in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 sheep within 
the confines of the United States. What are known as the Saxon Merinos 
originated from a flock of 200 Spanish sheep imported to Saxony in 1765. 
They were bred with great care, and improved over the original quality of 
wool. The celebrated Ercildoune sheep, whose wool has taken the gold 
medal at all the international European exhibitions for thirty years, are 
descendants from the Saxon Merinos which were transplanted to Tasmania 
in the early part of this century. By skillful crossing and selecting, and 
the rich pasturage afforded on the island of Tasmania, a large improve- 
ment has been made in the size of these sheep and in the quantity and 
quality of the fleece. The wool is clean, soft, elastic and carries a beauti- 



396 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WOO 

ful luster. It is bought by silk manufacturers to mix with silk and as a 
combing wool for the best fancy dress goods is unsurpassed. It can be 
used for pure white goods or dyed the most delicate shades, and is un- 
equalled for the finest billiard or broadcloth. Ewes of the Ercildoune 
stock are valued at $1,000 to $1,200 each. The finest and most valuable 
wool used in worsted manufactures is English luster wool, produced in 
Nottingham, Lincoln and Shropshire counties in England. [See Mohair.] 
This lustrous wool is not only of very fine grades, but of very light shrink- 
age, only about twenty per cent. It costs the American manufacturer 
under the present duty rates, thirty-seven cents per pound. Pulled wool is 
the name that is given to the wool that is pulled from the skin of a 
slaughtered animal. Factories are almost entirely dependent for wools of 
this description on our own production, as the importation is very small. 
Formerly the major part of pulled wool was produced in the East, but 
since sheep began to be slaughtered in the West, instead of being shipped 
alive, the industry has rapidly declined in all eastern cities. Armour and 
Swift, of Chicago, pull about 8,000 skins a day, the wool from which is 
nearly entirely consumed by the factories of the Middle States. 

Wool is distinguished from cotton, flax, and hemp by dipping the 
sample in a boiling solution of caustic soda (eight degress B). Let it re- 
main for two hours at a steady boil and all the wool will be dissolved, 
leaving the vegetable fiber unchanged. For further tests see Silk, Linen, 
Fiber. 

Woolens. There are two great classes of manufacturers in this coun- 
try each employed in using the same raw material — the fiber from sheep; 
still they are in many respects unlike each other. The products of the 
factories in which carded wool is employed are termed "woolen" fabrics; 
those in which combed wool is used are termed "worsted" fabrics. The 
fundamental distinction between the two classes of the fabrics is the way 
the yarn for each is spun. Yarn for woolen cloth is very slightly twisted, 
so as to leave the fibers as free as possible for the fulling process, and the 
fibers are crossed and interlocked in every direction. Worsted, on the 
the other hand, is fiber prepared by combing, and requires the long hairs to 
be laid parallel with each other, being hard spun and made into a much 
stronger thread, thereby producing a yarn quite unlike the v oolen yarns. 
Names are given to various kinds of woolen cloths according to the way 
they are finished, the special material of which they are made, and the 
purposes for which they are intended. Broadcloth, melton, kersey, cassi- 
mere, tweed, ladies' cloth, flannel, blankets, cheviot, and doeskin are repre- 
sentative woolens. In order to illustrate the difference between a worsted 
and a woolen fabric of exactly the same weave, compare the character and 
properties of a fine doeskin with those of a fine corkscrew worsted: the 
qualities of luster, softness of handle, and fineness of texture are common 
to both these fabrics; but however carefully the doesjkin may be examined, 
the crossings of the warp and weft will be found to be completely hid from 



WOO COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOO US. :J9? 

view, causing the cloth to appear more like the result of felting wool than 
of interlacing individual threads of warp and weft with each other. On 
taking up the corkscrew worsted, although the threads may not be followed 
without the aid of a magnifying glass, yet it is clear to the casual examiner 
that its leading feature (the "corkscrew ") is obtained by the mode of inter- 
lacing the threads. This leads to an important conclusion, namely, that 
the soft, pliable and mellow condition, or rather structure, of a woolen 
thread make it capable of taking a different finish to that of worsted, while 
the latter is more suitable to fabrics where the weave is intended to be the 
most prominent feature of the pattern. The well defined surface of the 
worsted thread fully develops the effect of woven pattern, and hence the 
larger variety to weave effects seen in the worsted fabrics for both ladies' 
and gentlemen's wear. The soft and pliable nature of woolen yarns fit 
them especially for napping, or in which the finish is to form the main fea- 
ture of the completed fabric. 

Worsteds. In the 15th century the production of woolen fabrics was 
a source of great wealth to many towns in eastern England, each town 
usually striving to excel in some special line or grade of woolen material. 
A sort of woolen yarn took took its name from Worstead, in Norfolk county, 
where it was first made. This yarn had a closer and harder twist than 
any woolen thread then made, and could be woven into cloth of special 
fineness. For 400 years this yarn has retained its identity, possessing now 
the same distinctive features as then. " Worsted" yarn, as explained 
under the head of Wool, is spun in a different way from "woolen" yarn. 
Throughout the process of worsted yarn manufacture, the fibers of which 
it is composed are mechanically arranged according to one regular order of 
parallelism, producing by this method a more symmetrical thread than the 
pure woolen, in which the fibers project from the main body of the yarn on 
all points of its circumference. In the former the fibers of wool are combed 
but as near straight as possible; in the latter the wool is carded, and the 
fibers are short and crossed in every direction, so as to assist in the fulling 
of the cloth after it is woven. Those cloths manufactured from worsted 
yarns which are figured, are woven in various kinds of looms, but in the 
main by the Jacquard. Plain kinds are woven in looms similar to those used 
for woolens. When worsted fabrics leave the loom they require only a 
slight dressing, and in this respect differ much from woolen cloths, which 
require elaborate finishing processes. [See Teasling, Fulling.] Manu- 
facturers of worsted (in its widest signification,) are classified according to 
the materials of which they are composed, viz: (1) Fabrics composed en- 
tirely of wool; (2) fabrics composed of wool and cotton; (3) fabrics com- 
posed of wcol and silk; (4) fabrics composed of alpaca and mohair, or the 
same mixed with cotton or silk. The first of these classes includes the 
fabrics so well known under the head of merinos, serges, bunting, reps, 
and a large proportion of the heavier fabrics used in men's clothing, notably 
all those in which the weave effect forms the most prominent feature of the 



398 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. WOR 

pattern. The second class includes many names used in the all-wool class, 
with the prefix of the word "union ;" also vestings, linings, boot and shoe cloths, 
toilinette, valentia, etc. The third class includes the rich poplins made 
chiefly at Dublin, paramatta or Henrietta cloth, pongee, bombazine and 
tammy cloths. The fourth class includes alpaca and mohair mixtures, 
lusters, alpaca poplins, braids and laces. 

The unique structure of worsted yarn makes it invaluable in the pro- 
duction of textile fabrics. Luster and uniformity of surface are its distin- 
guishing characteristics. The method on which it is formed causes it to be 
capable of sustaining more tension, in proportion to size and thickness, 
than the pure woolen yarn; this characteristic, combined with its lustrous 
quality, gives it a pre-eminent position in the manufacture of fine coating. 
There is no other textile thread so highly adapted as the worsted to this 
important branch of weaving, inasmuch as a finer cloth, possessing a 
brighter and clearer surface is without doubt producible with worsted than 
woolen yarn. The method of adjusting the fibers in the formation of 
woolen yarn is such as to produce a thread with a somewhat indefinite and 
fibrous surface, which neutralizes the character of the weave, or destroys to 
a certain degree the pattern-effect in woven goods, due to crossing the warp 
and weft at right angles with each other. As the fibers are prepared on a 
different system in worsted yarn construction, a class of weave ornamenta- 
tion of a decided or marked type may be obtained by employing this kind of 
thread. There is, in a word, more scope for pattern-production, for the 
level and regular structure of worsted imparts a distinctness to every sec- 
tion of a pattern; and from this peculiarity arises the great variety of effects 
seen in worsted trouserings, coatings, and dress fabrics, both in highly col- 
ored patterns and in piece-dyed fabrics of one shade throughout. The 
advantages which the worsted possesses over the woolen thread may be 
summed up as two-fold: (1) a smarter texture, that is, a clearer surface; 
and (2), a more definitely-pronounced weave effect. As to the carded 
thread (woolen), it is more suitable for cloths in which the colorings of the 
pattern require to be well blended, the texture fibrous, or the fabric well 
fulled; as, for example, fancy tweeds, cheviots, overcoatings, doeskins, mel- 
tons, kerseys, beavers and napped goods. 



Yacht-cloth (yot cloth). An all-wool fabric, twilled like serge, and 
finished with a rough surface, usually employed in the manufacture of men's 
summer suits. It is heavier than ordinary serge and piece-dyed in shades of 
dark blue. 

Yachting Caps (yotting caps). A cloth cap designed for ladies' and 
children's summer wear, the most characteristic style of which is distin- 
guished by a small peak and a full drooping crown. 



YAR COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 399 

Yard. An English measure of 3 feet or 36 inches. How this particular 
measure came to be first established in England is uncertain, but it has so 
intimate a relationship to the standards employed by the ancient Egyptians 
and Hebrews that authorities consider that it may not improbably be 
traced to these ancient units. The present standard has been scientifically 
fixed by the United States government to the one-millionth part of an inch. 
[See Measures, Metric System.] 

Yarn. Any textile fiber prepared by the process of spinning for being 
woven into cloth ; also, the term applied to woolen fiber prepared for hand 
knitting. All the yarns used for weaving purposes, whether made on 
" woolen," " worsted," or cotton systems, may be divided into two great 
classes, namely: crossband and openband twists. The origin of this classi- 
fication is derived from the twisting process. There are, as a simple ex- 
periment will show, two distinct methods of imparting twist to the atten- 
uated sliver of the condenser. Suppose, for example, that a number of 
threads are about to be twisted together by hand ; in order to accomplish 
this, one end of the threads might be held in a fixed position between the 
forefinger and thumb of the left hand, while the right hand could be engaged 
in imparting twist to the fibers, causing them to twine around each other 
from left to right, and forming, by so doing, what would be an openband 
thread. To produce the opposite kind of a twist, called crossband, it would 
only be necessary to reverse the motion of the right hand, and thus cause 
the fibers .during the imparting of the twist to the sliver, to revolve from 
right to left. In making this or a similar experiment, the left hand corres- 
ponds to the wooden frame, which was in Hargraves' machine, substituted 
for the hands of the spinner, or to giving-off rollers of the spinning frame 
in present use; for these grip the thick thread, while the spindles give the 
necessary twist in the direction they revolve, like the motions of the right 
hand. Yarn always loses a portion of its length in twisting, the loss being 
proportionate to the thickness of the yarn, and the hardness of the twist. 
If two bobbins containing the same counts are twisted together, the count 
will become half of what it was before [See Thread], just as the weight 
will be double. In bleaching, cotton yarns also lose a part of their weight, 
amounting to about 12 per cent. By dyeing, on the contrary, they acquire 
additional weight, sometimes as much as 15 per cent. [See Hank, Fac- 
tory.] 




APPENDIX "A." 



LENGTH AND RANGE OF "SIZES." 



The garments for the various parts of the human body, together with 
numerous articles of dry goods devoted to the use of the same, are differen- 
tiated into "sizes" according to the necessities of the parts and the nature 
of the materials used. The table below indicates the size-figures and what 
they mean: 





LENGTH 








OF 


RANGE 






SIZE. 


OF 


WHERE MEASURED. 




(inches) 


SIZES. 




Bolster 




42x63^ 


42x67^, 42x72, 42x76K, 45x63'^, 
45x67^, 45x72^, 45x76^, 






Boys' suits 




4 to 18 


years of age. 
diameter. 


Buttons 


X 


8 to 70 
614: to 8 


Caps, men's 


mean horizontal diameter of the head. 


Caps, boys' 


) 


6 to 7 
1 to 7 


mean horizontal diameter of the head. 


Cardigan 


2 


or 
34 to 46 


around chest. 


Coat, man's 


1 


34 to 50 


around chest. 


Cloak, lady's. . . . 


1 


32 to 44 


around bust. 


Cloak, miss' 


1 


4 to 18 


years of age. 


Collar, man's. . . . 


y 2 


14 to 20 


length. 


Collar, boy's 


y 2 


12 to 14 
60x72 


length. 


Comfort 


2 


to 

78x84 


width and length. 


Corset 


1 


16 to 30 
9 to 12 


around waist. 


Cuffs, men's 


length. 


Cuffs, boys' 


Vz 


8 to 9 


length. 


Drawers, men's.. 


2 


28 to 44 


around waist. 


Drawers, ladies' . 


2 


26 to 40 


around waist. 


Gloves, men's. . . 


% 


6^toll 


palm of hand. 


Gloves, cadet.. . . 


% 


$y 2 to 7 m 


palm of hand. 


Gloves, ladies'.. . 


% 


6 to 8 


palm of hand. 


Gloves, misses'. . 


% 


5x to §y 2 


palm of hand. 



400 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



401 



Gloves, fabric. 

Handkerchief. 

Hose, men's 

Hose, ladies'.. , 
Hose, children's. 

Hats 

Jersey, ladies'. . 
Jersey Underw'r 

Jumper 

Mackintosh .... 

Napkins 

Needles, sewing. 
Needles, darning 
Needles, knitting 
Overcoat, man's 
Overcoat, boy's. 

Pant'loons, men's 



Pantaloons, boys' 

Pearl but., shirt. . 
Pearl but., dress. 
Pearl but., cloak. 

Pillow cases.. . 



Ribbons 

Satchels 

Shirts, men's 

Shirts, boys' 

Slickers 

Smoking Jackets. 
Rubber coat, m.. 
Rubber coats, b.. 

Sheets 

Shoes 

Thimbles, ladies'. 
Thimbles, child.. 

Trunks 

Undershirt, m... . 

Umbrellas 

Valise 

Vest, men's 

Vest, children's.. 

Vest, ladies' 

Waists,children's 

Warmus 

Whalebones i 



LENGTH 
OF 
SIZE. 

(inches). 



%. tol 

1 



Y* 






Ye and 



2 

2 

1 
1 
1 

2 
2 
1 
2 



RANGE 
OF 
SIZE. 



7 to 10 

12x12 

to 
27x27 
9 to 12 

8 to 11 
4 to 8 



32 to 44 

2 to 6 

34 to 44 

34to44 

ltolO 

12 to 18 
10 to 18 
34 to 50 
4 to 18 
29x29 

to 
50x36 
25x25 

to 
30x32 

8 to 16 
16 to 30 
30 to 70 

42x36 

2 to 30 

9 to 16 
14 to 20 
12 to 14 

1 to 6 

34 to 44 

1 to 6 

54x90 



5 to 10 
3 to 6 
26 to 38 
34 to 50 
26 to 36 
14 to 24 
34 to 50 
16 to 34 
28 to 40 
4 to 18 
34 to 44 
A to if 



WHERE MEASURED. 



arbitrary basis. 

length and breath. 

length of foot, 
length of foot, 
length of foot, 
same as caps, 
around bust, 
equivalent to 30 to 40. 
around chest, 
over the coat, 
see Table Linen. 



over the coat, 
years of age. 

around waist and inseam of leg. 



around waist and inseam of leg. 

diameter, 
diameter. 

fl 1 flTTl 6*^6*1" 

45x36, 45x38^, 50x36, 50x38^, 50x40^ 

54x36, 54x38^, 54x40^- 

see Ribbon. 

length. 

neckband. 

neckband. 

over the coat. 

over the vest. 

over the coat. 

63x90, 63x93^, 63x99, 72x90, 72x93K. 

72x99, 81x93^, 90x90, 90x93^, 90x99. 

see Boots and Shoes. 

arbitrary basis. 

arbitrary basis. 

length. 

around chest. 

length of rib. 

length. See Satchel. 

around chest. 

around waist. 

around waist. 

years of age. 

around chest. 

width of bone. 



402 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



AMOUNT OF MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR ARTICLES AND 
GARMENTS. 

The following table indicates the average amount, and the width of 
material required for various articles and garments : 



Apron , 

Basque 

Binding, bottom of dress 

Blanket 

Bolster case , 

Butcher's apron 

Chemise, misses' 

Chemise, ladies 

Coat , 

Coat and vest , 

Comfort 

Corset cover 

Curtain, holland 

Curtain, lace 

Drawers, ladies' 

Drawers, misses' , 

Drawers, men's 

Dress skirt 

Jumper 

Kilt skirt, boy's 

Kilt skirt, ladies' 

New Market 

Nightgown 

Nightshirt, men's 

Nightshirt, boy's 

Overalls, men's 

Overcoat, men's 

Pantaloons 

Pillow case 

Quilt 

Rag carpet 1 lb. warp for. . . 
Rag carpet 1% lbs. rags for 

Roller towel 

Sheet 

Shirt, man's , 

Shirt, boy's 

Skirt lining 

Smoking jacket 

Sofa cover 

Table cloth , 

Vest, man's 

Waist lining , 



Width. 
Inches. 


Yards. 


27 


2% 


31 


2%. 




3 


72 


2% 


36 


2 


40 


IX 


36 


3K 


36 


\U 


31 


2% 


54 


2X 


24 


14 to 15 


36 


IX 


31 


2% 


31 


3 


36 


2X 


36 


1% 


36 


2X 


31 


5 


27 


3 


27 


1^ 


54 


3^ 


36 


5 


36 


5 


36 


sy s 


27 


3 


54 


2X 


30 


2% 


42 or 46 


ltol^ 


72 


2K 


36 


2% 


36 


1 


18 


2% 


72 


2% 


27 


3y 2 


27 


2% 


24 


5 


27 


3 


27 


5 


64 


2 to 2% 


27 


1 


36 


w 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 403 

CHILDREN'S WAISTS. 



Plain. 


Pleated. 


Yr's 


27 
Inches. 


36 
Inches 


Yr's. 


27 
Inches. 


86 
Inches. 


3 


IX 


IX 


3 


1# 


IX 


4 


Itt 


IX 


4 


1# 


IX 


5 


IX 


m 


5 


IX 


IX 


6 


V/z 


IX 


6 


IX 


IX 


7 


IX 


IX 


7 


2 


IX 


8 


IX 


IK 


8 


2X 


IX 


9 


1% 


IX 


9 


2^ 


IX 


10 


2 


IX 


10 


2% 


IX 


11 


2X 


IX 


11 


sy& 


2 


12 


2y 2 


1# 


12 


sn 


2^ 



Hosiery Sizes. 

The following sizes in hosiery should be sold for corresponding num- 
bers of shoes: 

IK to 2 2Kto3K 3Kto4K 5to5K 6 to 6K 7 to 8 
Ladies' 



8K 



9X 



10 



11 



6 to 6K 7 to 7K 8 to 8K 9 to 9K 10 to 10K 11 to 12 



1V1CU& — 


9K 


10 


10K 


11 


11 12 






6 to 7 


8 to 9 


10 to 11 


12 to 13 


Children's 














4 


5 


6 


7 



Underwear Sizes. 

The following are the proper sizes in underwear for children from 1 to 
17 years of age: 
Mos. 
6 



16 

Yrs. 
8 to 9 

26 



Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


lto2 


2 to 3 


4 to 5 


6 to 7 


18 


20 


22 


24 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


10 to 11 


12 to 13 


14 to 15 


16 to 17 



28 



30 



32 



34 



404 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



In drawers, one size smaller is required for the same age, beginning at 
4 years. In inches of waist measure, children's underwear should corres- 
pond with the sizes below: 



Inches 


12 


14 


16 


18 


20 


Size 


16 


18 


20 


22 


24 


Inches 


22 


24 


26 


28 


30 


Size 


26 


28 


30 


32 


34 



Ladies jersey vests are numbered 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. These sizes corres- 
pond to the following bust measure : 

Size 2 3 4 5 6 



Inches 



30 



32 



34 



36 



38-40 



The sizes marked on boxes of "flat" goods are always waist measure. 
Bust measure is four inches larger than waist measure. The correspond- 
ing sizes are as below: 

Size 28 30 32 34 



Inches 



28 



30 



30 



32 



Sizes 
Inches 



36 
32 



38 
34 



40 
34 



Cardigan Jackets. 

, The following are the standard sizes and measurements of cardigan 
jackets: 



No. l=size 34, 
No. 2=size 36, 
No. 3=size 38, 
No. 4= size 40, 
No. 5= size 42, 
No. 6=size 44, 
No. 7=size 46, 



length 24 inches, 
length 24 inches, 
length 25 inches, 
length 25 inches, 
length 26 inches, 
length 27 inches, 
length 28 inches, 



width 14 
width 15 
width 16 
width 17 
width 18 
width 19 
width 20 



inches, 
inches, 
inches, 
inches, 
inches, 
inches 
inches. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



405 



Dress Linings. 

The dress linings usually given away with dress patterns of expensive 
material, are as follows: 

5 yards cambric 
2 yards silesia. 
1 yards canvas. 
Bones or steel. 

1 spool silk. 

2 spools twist. 

1 velveteen binding. 
1 pair shields. 




APPENDIX "B." 



The following tables give the widths, number of yards to the pound, 
and counts of threads to the inch of the principal makes of domestic 
cottons, ginghams, drillings, ticks, etc.: 



UNBLEACHED MUSLINS AND SHEETINGS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. i in 

INCHES. 

Aberford Standard. 36 

Acorn 36 

Adriatic 36 

Agawan < 36 

Agawan, XX 30 

Albama 27 

Albany, LL 36 

Albany, BB : 36 

Alaska 36 

Alexandria 42 

Alpha 36 

Allendale 54 

Allendale 7-4 

Allendale 8-4 

Allendale 9-4 

Allendale 10-4 

Allendale 11-1 

Allendale, L 12- 

Alligator 27 

Alligator. 26 

American, XX 36 

American, Mills, C. D 36 

Amory Manufacturing Company 36 

406 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


2.84 


48x48 


4.00 


50x56 



4.00 



52x44 



12.00 


36x36 


4.00 


56x56 




64x72 


3.95 


72x80 


3.86 


64x68 


2.36 


60x64 


2.02 


60x64 


1.84 


60x64 


1.65 


60x64 


1.51 


60x64 


1.38 


60x64 


13.00 


26x26 


13.55 


40x32 


2.54 


52x56 


3.98 


52x48 


3.84 


80x76 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



407 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Amory Manufacturing Company 36 

Amory Manufacturing Company, LL 40 

Anchor, L 36 

Androscoggin 46 

Androscoggin 48 

Androscoggin 7-4 

Androscoggin 8-4 

Androscoggin 9-4 

Androscoggin 10-4 

Androscoggin 11-4 

Antilope, A 36 

Anniston 36 

Appleton, A 36 

Appleton, A 36 

Appleton, Fine AA 35 

Appleton, Fine AA 35 

Appleton, GG 35^ 

Appleton, Fine GG 35K 

Appleton, R 36 

Appleton, XX 36 

Archery Bunting 36 

Argyle Family 36 

Argyle Family 40 

Arizona 36 

Ascot 36 

Ashland 36 

Atlantt, AA improved 36 

Atlantt, AA 36 

Atlantt, BB 30 

Atlantic, A 36 

Atlantic, H 36 

Atlantic, P 36 

Atlantic, D 36 

Atlantic, V 30 

Atlantic, LL 36 

Atlantic, LL „ 36 

Atlantic 5-& 

Atlantic 5-4 

Atlantic 6-4 

Atlantic 7-4 

Atlantic 8-4 

Atlantic 9-4 

Atlantic . . . , , ,,.,,,,,,,,,,..,,, J0-4 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUNDS. 


INOH. 


3.68 


76x76 


3.49 


80x72 


6.65 


44x42 


3.36 


72x72 


3.10 


72x72 


2.14 


72x72 


1.87 


72x72 


1.66 


72x72 


1.50 


72x72 


1.38 


72x72 


3.26 


44x44 


3.20 


48x44 


2.76 


48x52 


2.80 


44x50 


4.39 


60x60 


4.37 


60x56 


2.86 


52x56 


4.53 


56x60 


3.70 


64x64 


4.17 


56x56 


8.20 


44x48 


3.52 


60x64 


3.25 


60x54 




68x76 


6.90 


44x44 


3.00 


46x48 


3.00 


46x48 


3.59 


48x48 


2.85 


48x48 


2.95 


52x56 


4.00 


56x56 


3.33 


48x48 


3.61 


52x52 


5.03 


64x64 


4.94 


64x64 


2.69 


68x72 


2.74 


68x68 


2.18 


68x68 


1.82 


68x68 


1.68 


68x68 


1.46 


68x68 


1.32 


68x68 



408 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Atlantic 11-4 

Atlantic Comet 36 

Atlantic Comet 40 

Atlas R 35 

Augusta A No. 1 36 

Augusta 30 

Augusta 27 

Aurora LL 36 

Aurora C 31 

Aurora R 36 

Aurora B 36 

Badger State LL 36 

Badger State RR 36 

Badger State R 36 

Bangor J 30 

Bangor F 36 

Bangor BB 36 

Bangor C 30 

Beaver Dam LL 36 

Bedford R 30 

Beacon 36 

Bennington AL 36 

Bennington FF 36 

Bennington M 36 

Bennington R 30 

Black Crow j 36 

Black Crow 36 

Black Rock 36 

Boott FF Standard 36 

Boott Sterling 36 

Boott 2d 36 

Boott 2d 36 

Boott Warwick C 34 

Boott Warwick AL 36 

Boott Warwick PL 40 

Boston 45 

Boston 50 

Boston 5-4 

Boston 6-4 

Boston , 7-4 

Boston 8-4 

Boston 9-4 

Boston 10-4 



i'ARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


1.24 


68x68 


3.45 


64x64 


3.11 


64x64 


3.79 


60x60 


3.03 


48x44 


3.53 


40x40 


4.52 


40x40 


4.00 


56x60 


5.50 


40x44 


3.50 


68x68 




64x68 


4.00 


56x56 


3.25 


64x64 


3.45 


64x64 


4.13 


48x44 


2.90 


48x48 


4.05 


56x56 


4.50 


56x56 


4.00 


56x56 


5.96 


64x68 


3.87 


56x56 


3.15 


64x68 


2.90 


48x48 


3.54 


60x64 


6.00 


64x64 


3.70 


60x64 


3.66 


60x64 


3.61 


64x68 


2.89 


48x48 


3.60 


60x64 


3.81 


60x60 


3.81 


62x60 


4.09 


58x60 


3.29 


68x68 


2.86 


68x68 


2.08 


68x72 


2.22 


72x72 


2.49 


68x64 


2.29 


68x68 


1.97 


72x72 


1.73 


72x72 


1.52 


72x72 


1.38 


72x72 



COLE S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



409 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Boynton 28 

Broadway 36 

Brighton Mills A 40 

Brighton Mills R 36 

Busy Bee . 36 

Busy Bee 33 

Busy Bee 7-8 

Burlington 4-4 

Burlington , 7-8 

Buckshead 36 

Buck's Head 40 

Buckingham 36 

Cabot, A (Dwight) 36 

Cabot No. 10 (M) 36 

Cabot W 36 

Calvert Manufacturing Company 36 

Calvert Manufacturing Company 36^ 

Cambria 36 

Calumet A 36 

Calumet B 36 

Calumet C 36 

Calumet LL 36 

Calumet X 36 

Carlyle 28 

Cartwright 36 

Cartwright CW 36 

Cartwright Mills 36 

Cary, G. W 36 

Cast-Iron Brand C 36 

Cast-Iron Brand 36 

Central Falls 36 

Century B 36 

Century B 36 

Century L 28 >£ 

Century Cotton B 36 

Century Cotton L 28 

Champion Mills K 31^ 

Chesterfield Mills A 36 

Chittenango A 36 

Clarion LL 36 

Clifton CCC 36 

Clifton CCC 36# 

Clifton CC 31 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


FOUND. 


INCH. 


8.38 


56x56 


4.50 


44x66 


3.18 




3.18 




4.35 


64x64 



2.85 


48x48 


3.17 


48x48 


2.97 


48x48 




76x80 


3.45 


48x48 


2.93 


48x48 


2.86 


48x48 


2.85 


48x48 


2.95 


48x52 


3.30 


56x60 


4.00 


56x56 


5.45 


48x48 


5.25 


64x66 


4.83 


48x52 


4.64 


52x56 


4.86 


52x56 


3.03 


48x44 


3.13 


68x72 


3.07 


68x76 


6.22 


44x40 


3.69 


68x72 


4.08 


68x72 


4.82 


64x64 


3.69 


68x72 


4.82 


64x64 


5.92 


64x64 


2.78 


48x46 


4.70 


44x44 


4.00 




3.03 


48x44 


2.87 


48x44 


3.64 


48x44 



410 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME in 

INCHES. 

Comet C 36 

Comet 40 

Common Sense 36 

Conestoga W 36 

Conestoga S 33 

Conestoga G 30 

Conestoga D 28 

Conestogo 10-4 

Conestogo 11-4 

Constitution 36 

Constitution 40 

Constitution 42 

Constitution 45 

Constitution 48 

Continental C 36 

Continental D 40 

Continental D 40 

Continental E 42 

Continental W 45 

Continental H 48 

Cotton Valley Mills Company 36 

Crown XXX 36 

Darlington 36 

Decatur 28 

Des Moines 36 

Dwight. 36 

Dwight Improved X 30 

Dwight Improved X 27 

Dwight DMC... 36 

Dwight DMC 36 

Dwight Star 36 

Dwight Star 40 

Dwight Anchor 36 

Dwight Anchor 40 

Echo Lake 36 

Echo Lake 40 

Eldorado 36 

Enterprise EE 36 

Ettrick AA 36^ 

EttrickEE 36 

Exeter A ° 36 

Exeter S 33 

Exeter C 40 



TABDS 

TO 
POUND. 


COUNTS 

TO 

INOH. 


3.45 


64x64 


3.11 


64x64 


4.02 


68x72 


3.61 


60x60 


4.18 


60x60 


4.73 


60x60 


5.11 


60x60 


1.28 


56x52 


1.12 


56x52 


3.48 


64x68 


3.14 


64x68 


2.93 


64x68 


2.76 


64x68 


2.76 


64x64 


3.50 


64x68 


3.27 


68x72 


3.05 


64x72 


2.12 


64x78 


2.75 


64x68 


2.63 


64x68 


3.79 


60x62 


2.85 


48x48 


2.85 




8.68 


52x52 


4.00 


64x72 


3.95 


76x82 


4.65 


64x64 


4.73 


60x64 


3.31 


72x72 


3.97 


76x80 


4.02 


80x76 


3.38 


80x76 


3.25 


72x72 


3.00 


72x72 


3.60 


72x68 


3.49 


64x62 


3.20 


68x64 


3.95 


52x52 


2.81 


48x48 


2.91 


48x48 


4.08 


64x64 


4.56 


64x64 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



411 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Farmer A 36 

Farmer BB . . . , 32 

Farmer extra No. 1 28 

Fine Sheetings 36 

Forest Mills 36 

Fountain City 36 

Foxhall A 27 

Fruit of the Loom 8-4 

Fruit of the Loom 9-4 

Fruit of the Loom 10 

Glendale 36 

Glendale 30 

Glendale B 36 

Good as Wheat 36 

Grafton extra A 28 

Granite B 32 

Graniteville A 36 

Graniteville EE 36 

Graniteville C 27 

Graniteville RR 27 

Graniteville RR 29 

Great Falls E 36 

Great Falls J 36 

Great Falls N 36 

Great Falls XX 36 

Great Western 36 

Greystone Steam Mills 36 

Hamilton Mills 36^ 

Harold M 36 

Hartford A 35 

Henrietta EE 36 

Here You Are 36% 

Hildreth A 36^ 

Hill Semper Idem 36 

Hill Semper Idem 36 

Honest Household 36 

Honest Width 36 

Honeet Width „ 36% 

Hoosier LL 36 

Housewife Friend LL 36 

Housewife Friend extra 36 

Huguenot Mills C 36 

Huguenot Mills A 36 



XABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


4.00 


58x58 


4.55 


64x64 


6.59 


60x60 


5.15 


44x44 


3.65 


68x68 


3.63 


48x52 


4.33 


36x44 


1.70 


68x68 


1.55 


68x68 


1.32 


68x68 


2.95 


44x44 


3.40 




4.02 




4.10 


76x84 


6.95 


64x66 


4.77 


48x52 


3.00 


48x52 


3.00 


48x48 


4.67 


40x40 


3.77 


48x48 


3.42 


52x52 


3.00 


52x56 


4.27 


64x68 


5.17 


50x48 


4.60 


56x56 


2.98 


48x48 


3.70 


64x66 


5.15 


44x42 


4.17 


56x60 


5.25 




3.82 




5.51 


52x48 


2.86 


44x48 


4.10 


80x64 


3.83 




4.15 


72x84 


3.50 


60x60 


5.51 


52x48 


4.00 


56x56 


3.98 




4.05 


52x56 


3.94 


52x56 


2.73 


48x48 



412 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH YARDS COUNTS 

NAME IN TO TO 

Inches. pound. Inch. 

Huguenot Mills A 36 3.73 48x48 

Huguenot Mills B 36 2.75 48x48 

Huron D 35^ 4.53 56x56 

Indiana Standard C 36 3.25 40x48 

Indiana Standard LL 36 4.00 56x56 

IndianHeadA 36 2.83 44x50 

IndianHeadE 48 2.12 46x50 

IndianHeadD 49 2.57 44x50 

IndianHeadB 30 3.42 48x48 

Invincible 30 5.16 44x44 

Ironside A 36 3.02 48x48 

Irving Mills XX 36 3.92 

Jollico Mills B , 30 3.70 48x48 

Jones' long cloth C 39# 3.59 

King Manufacturing Company AA 36 3.03 48x48 

King Manufacturing Company EC 32 5.42 56x60 

Laconia 63 2.38 64x64 

Laoonia 72 2.12 64x64 

Laconia 81 1.80 64x64 

Laconia 90 1.65 64x64 

Laconia 99 1.48 64x64 

Lake George AA 36 3.15 48x44 

LakeGeorgeAA 36 4.38 56x60 

Lanark A 36 4.27 44x44 

LanarkB 30 5.27 44x44 

LanarkC 27 6.00 44x44 

Lancaster 10-4 1.98 60x60 

Langley A 36 3.00 44x44 

Langley A 30 3.90 44x44 

Langley 27 4.60 44x44 

Lawrence LL 36 3.90 56x56 

LehighE 36 9.00 36x36 

LockwoodA 40 3.60 68x76 

LockwoodC 30 4.35 68x76 

LockwoodB 36 3.88 68x68 

LockwoodR 36 3.75 68x72 

Lockwood D 28 7.20 64x68 

LockwoodF 30 6.59 64x68 

Lockwood 42 3.04 64x72 

Lockwood 54 2.32 68x72 

Lockwood 63 2.11 64x68 

Lockwood 72 1.75 64x72 

Lockwood 81 1.56 64x72 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



413 



WIDTH 

NAME in 

INOHIS. 

Lockwood 90 

Lockwood 99 

Lonsdale 36 

Lowell 60 

Log Cabin 36 

Louise 35|£ 

Louise 40 

Lyman A 45 

Lyman B 40 

Macon, A 36 

Mass., Fine J 29 

Mass., Fine Standard 36 

Mass., Fine BB 26 

Mass., Fine C ; . . 28 

Marlboro 63 

Marlboro 81 

Marlboro 81 

Maginniss, EE 36 

Master Workman D 36 >£ 

Mechanics, AA 36 

Michigan, LL 36 

Mohawk Valley Mills 63 

Mohawk Valley Mills 88 

Mohawk Valley Mills 72 

Mohawk Valley Mills 81 

Mohawk Valley Mills 90 

Mohawk Valley Mills 99 

Mohawk Valley Mills A 31 

Monticello, XXX 29# 

Monadnock 72 

Monadnock 81 

Monadnock 90 

Monadnock 99 

Monadnock A 36 

Monhansett Manufacturing Company 36 

Mystic River 36 

Nashua, E, Fine 40 

Nashua, R 36 

Nashua, F 42 

Nashua, O 33 

Nashua, P 45 

Nashua, W 48 

Nan tuck Sheeting 90 



TARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


1.42 


64x72 




68x68 




76x88 


2.13 


56x60 


3.54 






76x88 


2.35 


48x48 


2.56 


48x52 


2.87 


48x48 


4.03 


48x48 


2.90 


48x48 


4.00 


60x60 


4.38 


40x40 


2.07 


72x62 




68x72 


1.45 


72x72 


4.00 




3.38 




12.23 


32x28 


4.00 




2.00 


68x68 


2.12 


64x66 


1.98 


64x64 


1.70 


64x64 


1.53 


64x64 


1.35 


64x64 




56x56 


3.92 


50x38 


2.55 


64x60 


1.95 


64x60 


1.82 


64x60 


1.70 


64x60 


5.20 


48x52 


4.45 


72x64 


5.50 


48x52 


3.70 


68x68 


3.53 


64x68 


2.95 


68x68 


3.80 


72x72 


2.72 


68x68 


2.56 


68x68 


2.19 


68x65 



414 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Natchez, A 36 

Natchez, F 36 

Natchez, 2 35^ 

Natchez, 1 30 

Natchez, G 30 

Natchez, H 36 

Natchez, S 30 

Neponset 36 

New Hartford, A \ 37 

Newburg 36 

Newburg C 31 

Newberry Mills, A 36 

Newport, A 36 

Newport, D 36 

Newmarket, B 36^ 

Newmarket, G 36 

Newmarket, N 36 

Newmarket, DD 36 

Newmarket, X 36 

Newmarket, K 31 

Newmarket, KK , 29 

New York Mills 38 

New York Mills 57 

New York Mills 81 

New York Mills 90 

New York Mills 99 

New York Mills 108 

Niobe, R 36 

Nonpareil 36 

Oela, XX 28 

Oriental Bunting, A 36 

Oriental Bunting 36 

Ozark AA 36 

Pacific, Extra 36 

Pacific H 36 

Pacific 54 

Pacific ; 63 

Pacific 72 

Parcolet Mfg. Co 36 

Pacolet, LL 36 

Palatka Bunting , 35j£ 

Park, A „ 33 

Pembroke 72 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


3.25 


48x43 


4.15 


40x44 


2.52 


60x60 


4.20 


48x48 


5.00 


40x44 


4.50 


60x64 


5.50 


52x52 


4.60 


42x44 


4.19 


60x60 


2.87 


48x48 


4.44 




450 


52x56 


4.77 


48x52 


4.90 


56x60 


4.00 


62x62 


4.58 


52x90 



5.86 



62x68 



2.20 


62x62 


1.82 


66x60 


1.25 


64x68 


1.25 


64x68 


1.12 


64x68 


1.00 


64x68 


4.52 


52x56 


5.28 


52x52 




40x40 


10.28 


36x32 


10.52 




2.79 


48x52 


2.85 


50x50 


3.15 


56x56 


4.22 


68x68 


1.87 


68x72 


1.62 


64x72 


4.07 


56x60 


4.00 




8.72 


56x62 


4.32 


42x50 


2.15 


60x68 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



415 



WIDTH 

NAME in 

INCHES. 

Pembroke 63 

Pembroke 72 

Pembroke 81 

Pembroke 90 

Pepperell, E 40 

Pepperell, R 36 

Pepperell 63 

Pepp'erell 72 

Pepperell 81 

Pepperell 90 

Pepperell 66 

Pequa 90 

Pequot, A 36 

Pequot 54 

Pequot 63 

Pequot 72 

Pequot 81 

Pequot 90 

Pequot 99 

Perkins, X 30 

Perkins, Y 33 

Perkins, Z 36 

Phcenix, AA 39 

Piedmont 36 

Piedmont 30 

Piedmont 27 

Plymouth, H 29^ 

Pocahontas, R 36 

Pocahontas, E 40 

Pocasset Canoe, E 40 

Pocasset, C 36 

Pocasset, O 33 

Portsmouth, P 28 

Portsmouth, B 31 

Prescott, L 36 

Pride of the Nation 36 

Prairie Bunting, A 36 

Princton, 401 36 

Rexf ord Standard, AA 36 

Richmond Co. Mills, BD 36 

Riverside Mills, XX 36 

Rosalie F 36 

Royal Standard 36 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 




60x68 


2.15 


60x68 


1.85 


60x68 


1.62 


60x68 


3.44 


66x68 


3.70 


64x64 


2.36 


64x64 


2.10 


64x64 


1.79 


64x64 


1.62 


64x64 


1.47 


64x64 


1.51 


64x64 


3.17 


64x64 


2.18 


72x76 


2.08 


72x76 


1.71 


72x76 


1.45 


72x76 


1.33 


72x76 


1.22 


68x76 


4.67 


60x60 


4.31 


64x64 


3.90 


64x64 


3.50 


64x64 


3.09 


48x48 




38x44 


4.62 


48x44 


4.96 




3.00 


80x72 


3.65 


80x72 


3.10 


64x64 


3.63 


64x64 




64x64 


7.00 


64x64 


9.41 


48x48 


4.50 


64x64 


3.85 


84x84 


8.63 


44x36 


3.93 


56x60 


2.76 


48x44 


4.69 


48x52 


5.36 


52x48 


2.96 


48x48 


2.90 


52x52 



416 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Royal Standard 35 

Salsbury E 39 

Salsbury R 36 

Salsbury O 33 

Salsbury N 30 

Saracen 36 

Saranac A 36 

Saranac E 40 

Saranac R 36 

Scotia Mills, OM 36^ 

Sea Shore Shirtings 21% 

Shawmut LL 36 

Shawmut XX 36 

Sherman 30 

Sibley B 40 

Statute of Liberty 36 

Stark AA 36 

Superior W. E 36 

Superior Sea Island 36 

Sun Tissues W 37 

Tit for Tat Al 36 

Tremont CC 36 

Utica C 36 

Utica Cotton Co 36 

Utica Steam Mills. . . ,. 39 

Utica Steam NonliNWV 40 

Utica Steam Non . 48 

Utica Steam Non 58 

Utica Steam Non 9-4 

Utica Steam Non 10-4 

Utica Steam Non 11-4 

Utica Steam Non 12-4 

Verona 36 

Victoria R 36 

Victoria AA 36 

Victoria LL 36 

Victoria E 40 

Volunteer L 36 

Volunteer B 32 

Volunteer C 28 

Volunteer D 28 

Wachusett A 36 

Wachusett B 30 



TABDS 

TO 
POUND. 


COUNTS 

TO 

INOH. 


3.60 


48x48 


3.40 


64x64 


3.72 


64x64 


4.05 


64x64 


4.40 


64x64 


4.38 


54x60 


4.83 


52x52 


3.08 


68x68 


3.45 


64x68 


4.72 


48x48 


2.73 


40x32 


4.00 


52x52 


3.16 


64x64 


5.09 


46x40 


2.50 




3.97 


60x68 


2.85 


48x48 


4.85 


48x52 


4.76 


56x56 


9.00 


48x50 


4.15 


56x60 


4.00 


48x52 


4.19 


48x44 


5.45 


48x44 


3.15 


68x84 


2.94 


92x96 


2.23 


68x72 


1.91 


64x64 


1.37 


64x68 


1.31 


68x68 


1.15 


68x68 


.98 


64x68 


3.77 


88x84 


3.68 


64x64 


3.95 


52x52 


3.92 


52x56 




64x64 


5.42 




5.98 




8.18 




6.93 




2.85 


48x48 


3.42 


38x38 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



417 



WIDTH 

NAME in 

INCHES. 

Wachusett 40 

Wachusett 48 

Wamsutta 59 

Wamsutta 72 

Wamsutta 81 

Wamsutta 90 

Wamsutta 99 

Wamsutta 108 

Washington A 36 

Waterville 36 

Whitfield, Fine 40 

Windsor H 36 

Williamville Sea Island 46 

Yardstick 36 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


2.57 


48x52 


2.12 


48x52 


1.80 


72x76 


1.45 


72x76 


1.40 


72x76 


1.15 


72x76 


1.05 


72x76 


.96 


72x76 


3.59 


52x60 


5.15 


64x68 


3.66 


56x60 


5.34 


52x48 


3.90 


80x80 


3.52 


60x60 



BLEACHED MUSLINS AND SHEETINGS. 



WIDTH 

NAME . in 

INCHES. 

Allendale 6-4 

Allendale 7-4 

Allendale 8-4 

Allendale 9-4 

Allendale , 10-4 . 

Allendale 11-4 

Alexandria 36 

Alexandria 42 

Alexandria 46 

Alpine Rose baptiste 36 

Alpine Rose twilled 36 

Amory 36 

Androscoggin A A 36 

Androscoggin L 36 

Androscoggin 42 

Androscoggin 46 

Androscoggin 6-4 

Androscoggin 7-4 

Androscoggin 8-4 

Androscoggin 9-4 

Androscoggin 10-4 

27 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


2.65 


64x60 


2.35 


64x60 


2.08 


64x60 


1.87 


64x60 


1.64 


64x60 


1.50 


64x60 


3.73 


80x80 


3.29 


72x72 


3.23 


72x72 


4.50 


104x96 


3.70 


84x96 


3.70 


88x88 


3.98 


88x88 


4.17 


80x76 


3.64 


72x64 


3.37 


72x64 


2.57 


72x64 


2.20 


72x64 


1.92 


72x64 


1.71 


72x64 


1.54 


72x64 



418 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME in 

INOHES. 

Art Cambric 36 

Ashbyrne 36 

Aurora 36 

Aurora Cambric 36 

Ballardville 36 

Barker 36 

Bay Mills 36 

B B muslin cambric 36 

Beaver Fall Mills 26 

Berkely cambric 36 

Berkely, No. 60 36 

Berkely, No. 150 36 

Beakley, No. 180 36 

Berkley Madapolom 36 

Berkshire X 46 

Bershire Hiwatha 36 

Birkshire Lily 33 

Berkshire Peacock 31 

Berkshire Bugle 31 

Berkshire XIX 27 

Big Bonanza 30 

Blackburn AA 36 

Boott R 28 

BoottE 36 

Cabot 36 

Cabot 31 

Canoe River 27 

Champion 36 

Chapman X 46 

Charter Oak 36 

Chestnut Hill 36 

Clinton Al 24 

Commonwealth O 27 

Conestoga Mills 10-4 

Conestoga Mills 90 

Continental Mills 36 

Continental H 48 

Continental LN 36 

Continental A 36 

Continental half bleached 36 

Copper Fastened 35% 

Cumberland 36 

Dauntless 36 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 




100x98 




84x88 


3.80 


88x84 




100x100 


5.00 


64x64 


4.25 


80x80 


3.91 


88x82 


5.90 


100x80 


7.85 


64x60 


5.27 


120x108 


5.58 


88x84 


5.17 


120x108 


7.32 


120x128 


4.30 


102x100 


4.50 


80x80 


5.38 


56x60 


5.75 • 


72x68 


6.10 


60x60 


6.20 


60x60 




56x60 


5.18 


64x60 


4.80 


68x72 


5.91 


68x60 


4.34 


64x64 


4.65 


80x76 


5.67 


80x76 


7.70 


60x56 


5.50 


60x56 


4.31 


74x64 


4.80 


64x64 


5.20 


64x60 


4.30 


84x80 


8.00 


56x52 


1.11 


60x48 




60x48 


3.02 


70x60 


2.62 


64x68 


4.00 


88x88 


4.20 


84x84 




68x72 


4.38 


60x56 




80x84 


5.85 


60x60 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



419 



NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Davol Mill 36 

Defiance 36 

Defiance 36 

DeSoto Mills E 36 

Diamond Hill cambric 36 

Dwight Anchor Co 36 

Dyerville A 36 

Edward Harris 30 

Ellerton WS 36 

Exeter 36 

Exeter 30 

F-PF cambric 36 

Fairfax 36^ 

Fairmount Q , 36 

Farmer's Choice 36 

Farwell Mills 36 

Farwell Mills 42 

Farwell Mills 45 

Fearless-of-all-Competition 36 

Fidelity 36 

First Bale 36 

First Call , 36 

Fitchville 36 

Forestdale 36 

Forrest Mills 36 

Forrest Mills 36 

Forrest Mills 30 



Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 
Fru 



t of the Loom 36 

t of the Loom 31 

tof the Loom (100s) 36 

t of the Loom 31 

t of the Loom 42 

t of the Loom 50 

t of the Loom 45 



48 

63 

72 

81 

90 

90 

36 

36 

Gold Medal 36 



t of the Loom 

t of the Loom 

t of the Loom (extra) 

t of the Loom 

t of the Loom 

t of the Loom 

Gem of the Spindle 

George Washington XX 



YARDS 

TO 
POUND. 

3.75 
3.90 
3.90 
3.14 
7.05 
4.48 
4.00 
5.75 
4.00 
4.20 
5.00 

4.00 
5.00 
5.00 
4.38 
3.72 
3.48 
4.45 
4.20 
5.52 
4.80 
4.50 
4.25 
5.00 
4.77 
4.10 
4.10 
4.22 
3.72 
4.32 
3.64 
2.96 
3.07 
2.78 
1.98 
1.70 
1.49 
1.12 
1.42 

3.72 
4.27 



COUNTS 

TO 

INCH. 

84x88 
84x88 
87x82 
52x48 
88x80 
76x76 
80x76 
72x72 
72x72 
72x68 
72x68 
88x76 



64x64 
64x64 

80x80 
80x80 
80x80 
72x72 
84x80 
68x64 
68x64 
72x72 
80x76 
72x68 
72x68 
88x84 
88x84 



100x100 
82x80 
82x80 
88x72 
88x80 
88x76 
80x60 
80x64 
80x60 
80x60 
72x64 
80x76 
76x72 
76x72 



420 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Gold Medal 32^ 

Great Falls Mfg. Co. J 39^ 

Great Falls S Tiger 31 

Great Falls M Dog 33 

Great Republic 36 

Green G 36 

Grinnell, fine 40 

Grinnell, fine 45 

Grinnell, fine 54 

Grinnell, fine 63 

Grinnell, fine 72 

Grinnell, fine 99 

Hero 36 

Highland Mills 36 

Hillsdale Mfg. Co 36 

Hill's Semper Idem 36 

Hill's Semper Idem 36 

Hill's Semper Idem 36 

Hill's Semper Idem 42 

Hill's Semper Idem 45 

HEP fine cambric B5}4 

Homesville B 36 

Homesville H & E 36 

Homesville H & E 31 

Homesville WT 33 

Homesville XXX 36 

Homespun 36 

Hope 36 

Howe 36 

Ideal Q 36 

Indian Head Shrunk 35 

Industry 36 

Jack Horner 30 

Jacque Rose Com. Cambric 36 

Jacque Rose Cambric 36 

J. C. Knight Cambric 33 

Jewett City Mills 48 

Jumping Horse 36 

Just Out 27 

King Phillip AP 36 

King Phillip OP . 36 

King Phillip cambric ■ 36 

Knights cambric 33 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


5.47 


72x64 


4.27 


64x68 


5.18 


72x68 


4.62 


76x72 


4.20 


80x80 


5.00 


64x64 


3.47 


104x96 


3.21 


100x100 


2.59 


104x92 


2.58 


104x92 


2.04 


104x92 


1.52 


104x92 


4.60 


72x72 


3.70 


76x68 


5.00 


68x68 


4.24 


80x80 


4.27 


84x76 


4.36 


84x80 


3.75 


84x84 


3.44 


84x72 


5.75 


84x72 


5.16 


64x64 


4.85 


72x68 


6.00 


68x64 


5.75 


68x64 


4.50 


72x68 


4.15 


76x76 


4.80 


76x72 


4.65 


76x72 


5.39 


60x40 




48x48 




56x56 


5.72 


64x64 


5.40 


84x84 


5.40 


84x84 


4.80 




3.65 


76x84 


4.75 


68x64 


6.15 


64x60 


3.80 


84x84 


3.67 


84x84 


5.75 


96x104 


7.00 


84x80 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



421 



WIDTH 

NAME, IN 

INCHES. 

Laconia Mills 46 

Laconia Mills 54 

Laconia Mills 63 

Laconia Mills 72 

Laconia Mills 81 

Laconia Mills 90 

Laconia Mills good-night cambric 46 

Lafaytte 36 

Lancaster 90 

Landseer 36 

Langdon GB 36 

LangdonGB "76" 36 

Langdon 42 

Lily of the Valley half bleached 36 

Linwood 36 

Little Chief cottons 36 

Loch Lamond cambrics 36 

Lockwood VVV 36 

Lockwood VVV 42 

Lockwood VVV 42 

Lockwood VVV 45 

Lockwood VVV 45 

Lockwood VVV 50 

Lockwood VVV 72 

Lockwood VVV 81 

Lockwood VVV 90 

Lonsdale 36 

Lonsdale 32 

Lonsdale cambric 36 

Lonsdale Nameles Star 30^ 

Madapolam cambrics 36 

Magic 26 

Masonville 36 

Masonville 36 

Melrose Mill 36 

Milton Falls 36 

Mohawk 7-8 

Mohawk Valley Mills 45 

Mohawk Valley Mills 54 • 

Mohawk Valley Mills 63 

Mohawk Valley Mills 72 

Mohawk Valley Mills 81 

Mohawk Valley Mills 90 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


YABDS. 


INCH. 


2.70 


64x64 


2.95 


64x64 




64x64 


2.09 


64x64 


1.89 


64x64 


1.55 


64x64 


2.68 


96x80 


5.00 


64x64 


1.90 


64x52 


4.10 


80x80 


3.87 


92x84 


3.80 


88x84 




88x80 


4.25 


76x68 


4.30 


84x80 


4.71 


80x64 


5.27 


76x68 


3.75 


88x84 


3.12 


72x64 


3.12 


68x64 


2.99 


68x60 


3.01 


68x60 


2.57 


68x64 


1.89 


68x64 


1.67 


68x64 


1.45 


72x64 


4.31 


84x80 


4.70 


84x84 


4.70 


104x96 


4.27 


80x72 


4.40 


108x100 


8.29 


52x40 


4.02 


88x84 


3.97 


88x84 


3.90 


84x88 


5.00 


64x64 


2.22 


72x60 


2.91 


64x64 


2.56 


64x64 


2.21 


72x60 


1.87 


72x60 


1.69 


68x60 


1.52 


72x60 



422 



COLE'S DICTIONARt OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES, 

Mohawk Valley Mills 99 

Monadnock 72 

Monadnock 81 

Monadnock 90 

Monadnock 108 

Monadnock 81 

Monadnock 90 

Monadnock 108 

Monohansett half bleached 36 

Monohansett Manufacturing Company 46|^ 

Nashau, E 36 

Nashau, P 45 

Nashau, W 45 

Naumkeag Twill 72 

Naumkeag Twill 81 

Naumkeag Twill 90 

Netherwood 36 

New Candidate 35|^ 

New Bedford Sheeting 45 

New Bedford Sheeting 48 

New Bedford Sheeting 50 

New Bedford Sheeting 54 

New Bedford Sheeting 63 

New Bedford Sheeting 72 

New Bedford Sheeting 81 

New Jersey 36 

Newmarket 36 

New York Mills Extra 36 

New York Water Twist 36 

New York Mills 45 

New York Mills 54 

New York Mills 72 

New York Mills 81 

New York Mills 90 

New York Mills 90 

New York 100 99 

No Dicker 31 

Oak Grove 32 

Oak Lawn 36 

Our Choice 36 

Our Own 30 

Our Reliance 36 

Paragon 36 



YABDS 

TO 
POUND. 


COUNTS 
TO 
INCH. 


1.36 


64x64 


2.11 


68x52 


1.87 


68x52 


1.69 


68x52 


1.10 


68x52 


1.88 


68x52 


1.70 


68x52 


1.10 


68x52 


4.45 


72x64 




72x64 


3.50 


75x68 


3.11 


75x68 


3.02 


75x68 


1.60 




1.45 




1.28 




4.30 


76x80 


4.72 


80x76 



1.80 


92x84 


1.60 


88x84 


.73 


76x64 


4.55 


68x64 


4.87 


96x96 




92x104 


2.61 


68x56 


2.06 


68x56 


1.50 


72x56 


1.22 


72x60 


1.20 


60x48 


1.20 


72x68 


1.00 


68x64 


4.75 


72x68 


5.77 


68x60 


5.17 


72x64 


4.50 


76x72 


5.72 


64x64 


5.70 


60x56 


4.50 


72x68 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



423 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Peabody Mills, H 36 

Pelham, Q 36 

Pelham 36 

Pelham 36 

Pembroke 54 

Pembroke 63 

Pembroke 63 

People's Cry (The) 36 

Pepperell E 40 

Pepperell R 36 

Pepperell 33 

Pepperell N 30 

Pepperell 45 

Pepperell 48 

Pepperell 63 

Pepperell 72 

Pepperell 72 

Pepperell 81 

Pepperell 90 

Pepperell 99 

Pepperell 108 

Pepperell Mfg. Co.'s Extra— GH Twills .... 36 

Pequa 90 

Pequot A Heavy 36 

Pequot B 40 

Pequot 45 

Pequot W 48 

Pequot 54 

Pequot 54 

Pequot 63 

Pequot 63 

Pequot 72 

Pequot 72 

Pequot 81 

Pequot 81 

Pequot 90 

Pequot 99 

Perkins Z 36 

Perkins Y 33 

Perkins X 30 

Phoenix AA 39 

Piedmont 27 

Piedmont 36 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


4.70 


60x52 


4.70 


68x60 


4.70 


68x64 


4.70 


64x64 


2.65 


64x64 


2.40 


64x64 




60x68 




72x56 


3.44 


66x68 


3.70 


64x64 


4.00 


64x64 


4.39 


64x64 


2.90 


64x64 




64x64 


2.36 


64x64 


2.10 


64x64 


1.95 


64x64 


1.79 


64x64 


1.63 


64x64 


1.47 


64x69 


1.00 


64x64 


3.27 


100x60 


1.51 


64x64 


3.20 


68x64 


2.80 


64x64 


2.59 


72x76 


2.32 


68x76 


2.18 


72x76 


2.29 


72x68 


2.07 


72x76 


1.89 


72x62 


1.71 


72x76 


1.68 


72x72 


1.45 


72x76 


1.49 


72x72 


1.33 


72x76 




68x70 


3.90 


64x64 


4.31 


64x64 


4.67 


60x64 


3.50 


64x64 


4.62 


48x44 


3.09 


48x44 



424 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Piedmont 30 

Pocahontas, R 86 

Pocahontas, E 40 



Pocahontas, D 

Pocasset Canoe, E 

Pocasset, C 

Pocasset, O 

Portsmouth, C 

Portsmouth, B 

Portsmouth, P 

Prescott, L 

Pride-of-the-Nation 

Preston , 

Princton 401 

Quinnbaug Company 

Rochdale (half bleached). . . 
Rosaland (As You Like It). 
Rasaland (As You Like It). 

Second to None 

Security 



30 

40 

36 

33 

36 

31 

28 

36 

36 

36 

36 

36 

36 

36 

36 

36 

30 

Senate Mills (half bleached) 36 

Signal, A 32 

Signal, B 27 

Social, Q 36 

Social, L 36 

Social, W 36 

Standard 36 

Standish • 36 

Star, W 36 

Sun 36 

Sunlight 27 

Superior American 36 

Superior Royal Bunting 36 

Telegraph 30 

Ten Strike 36 

Triumph 36 

Tuscarora Mills 36 

Tuscarora 36 

Universal 36 

Utica Cotton Extra Heavy 36 

Utica Nonpareil 36 

Utica Extra Heavy 36 

Utica 5-4 



YABDB 

TO 
POUND. 



3.90 
3.10 

3.10 
3.63 



9.41 
7.00 
4.50 
3.85 

3.90 
4.70 
4.90 

4.32 
5.22 
6.20 
4.18 
5.66 
6.12 
4.75 
5.10 
5.97 
4.15 
4.25 
5.20 
3.57 



8.97 
6.00 
4.50 
5.70 
3.28 
3.28 
3.55 
3.00 
3.20 
3.55 
2.72 



COUNTS 

TO 

INCH. 

48x44 
80x72 
64x94 

64x64 
64x64 
64x64 

48x48 
64x64 
64x64 
84x84 

56x60 
80x72 
68x68 
76x76 
80x76 
68x60 
60x56 
68x72 
64x64 
64x64 
80x76 
72x72 
68x64 
88x84 
80x76 
64x64 
80x68 
56x60 
76x80 
44x40 
60x52 
72x68 
68x60 
80x68 
80x60 
80x76 
68x64 
92x96 
96x80 
68x60 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



425 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Utica 6-4 

Utica 8-4 

Utica 8-4 

Utica Steam Mills 72 

Utica 9-4 

Utica 10-4 

Utica 10-4 

Utica 100 

Utica Diamond. U 36 

Valley Mills Q 35^ 

Valley Mills Q 25 

Waltham XX (h'f bl'd) 36 

Wamsutta Mis O XX 36 

Wamsutta ST 45 

Wamsutta 50 

Wamsutta 60 

Wamsutta Cambric 36 

Wamsutta Cambric fine 36 

Wamsutta 81 

Wamsutta 45 

Wamsutta ST 45 

Wamsutta 63 

Wamsutta Twilled 72 

Wamsutta 81 

Wamsutta Twilled 90 

Wamsutta ST 90 

Wamsutta 99 

Wamsutta 108 

Wamsutta Ex Hvy Jean , 36 

Wamsutta Gold Medal 36 

Wamsutta Gold NB 36 

Wamsutta Night Robes 36 

Wamsutta d'bl warp 35-^ 

Warren Mfg. Co. linen fine 36 

Washington , 36 

Wessacumcon D 36 

Wessacumcon B 36 

Wauregan 100's 36 

Wauregan No 1 36 

Wauregan Cambric 36 

White Horse 36 

White Hall 36 

White Rock 36 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


2.17 


68x56 


1.31 


68x60 


1.68 


72x72 


1.59 


72x60 


1.35 


68x64 


1.31 


68x60 


1.70 


72x60 


1.14 


68x60 


3.47 


72x72 


7.89 


60x60 


6.80 


52x44 


3.50 


72x60 


3.50 


92x92 


2.33 


72x64 


2.28 


88x88 


3.40 






68x56 


6.15 


100x96 


3.47 


88x88 


3.09 


72x72 


1.98 


72x72 


2.07 


72x64 


1.44 


72x68 


1.33 


72x72 


1.17 




1.17 


72x68 


1.03 


72x64 


4.82 


68x64 


4.82 


68x64 


3.36 


68x56 


4.82 


68x54 


2.82 


80x60 


5.00 


64x64 


4.34 





3.90 



100x100 





108x94 


5.00 


64x64 


4.75 


72x80 


4.10 


88x80 



426 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Whiting 36 

Whitinsville Cotton Mills 36 

Whitinsville Cotton Mills 36 

Williamsville A2 36 

Winchester 36 

Winona 36 

Winthrop AA 36 

Winthrop E 42 

Winthrop 45 

Woodbury 36 

World Wide 36 

Worth 36 



TABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


4.50 


80x76 


4.58 


80x76 


3.59 


88x64 


3.60 


88x84 


3.62 


60x68 


2.75 


64x68 


5.29 


64x64 



4.80 



72x60 



TICKINGS. 

WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Amoskeag Mfg Co 32 

Amoskeag Mfg Co 31 ^ 

Amoskeag Mfg ACA 36 

Amoskeag Mfg 31 j^ 

Amoskeag Mfg , 31*4 

Amoskeag Mfg. A 30^@ 81 

Amoskeag Mfg B 36 

Amoskeag C Improved 30@ 31 

Amoskeag D Improved 30@ 31 

Amoskeag E Improved 31 

Amoskeag XX Improved 32 

Amoskeag Mfg Co X... 31@ 31 

Amoskeag Awning sateen 21 

Amoskeag Garniture 32 

Belgrade fey red 135 30 

Berwick Mfg Co B A fancy colored 40 

Brandywine Mills No 10 31 K 

Conestoga Steam Mills , 33 

Conestoga Prem A 46 

Conestoga FF 33 

Conestoga Extra 36 

Conestogo Extra 32 

Conestoga Gold Medal 36 

Conestoga CT . . . f 36 



TABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


1.97 


52x80 


2.00 




1.85 




1.94 




2.03 




2.27 




2.50 




2.59 


56x56 


2.60 




3.07 




1.87 


65x68 


2.70 


54x60 


1.97 


54x80 


2.01 




2.77 


76x54 


2.84 


84x64 


3.08 


44x96 


2.00 




2.00 




2.00 




2.25 




2.50 




2.30 




2.42 





COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



427 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Conestoga CCA 31 J< 

Conestoga AA 29 

Conestoga fancy red RR 33 

Cordis, ACE 32 

Cordis, No. 1 32 

Cordis, No, 2 32 

Cordis, No. 3 30 

Cordis, WS 29 

Challenge, fancy 30 

Challenge, fancy 

Endurance, fancy 32 

Everettplaid PT 30 

Farmer's 

Hamilton Manufacturing Company 30 >£ 

Hamilton Manufacturing Company BT 30 

Hamilton Manafacturing Company D 30 

Hamilton Manufacturing Company N 31 % 

Hamilton Manufacturing Company B 30 >£ 

Horse Head 30 K 

Jewitt City 30 

Lenox, fancy 32 

Lenox, fancy 32 

Lenox, fancy 30 

First Prize B 30 

First Prize C 30 

First Prize D 30 

First Prize E 30 

Ocean 27 

Old Clock Tick C 30 

Old Clock Tick (I) C 30 

Old Clock Tick G 31 K 

Old Clock Tick G 31 ]/ 2 

Old Clock Tick K 28 J^ 

Old Clock Tick R 30 

Omega medal superior, extra 36>i 

Omega middle superior 32 

Omega medal, fancy, RD 31 

Randolph Mills blue 29^ 

Rosemont Mills RLT, fancy 31 K 

Rosemont Mills XXX 32 

Swift River 30 

Tiger Mills No. 1 33 

Tiger Mills No. 1 32^ 



YARDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


2.58 




3.40 




2.04 


32x60 


2.07 




2.07 




2.22 




2.50 




4.00 


60x76 


3.84 


36x84 


3.71 


36x84 


2.66 


44x96 


2.40 




2.88 


36x80 


2.42 


56x56 


2.54 


52x52 


2.50 


68x48 


3.48 


64x44 


2.95 


64x48 


3.45 


72x44 


3.92 


76x40 


2.16 


64x48 


3.84 


36x84 


3.71 




2.93 




2.83 


52x88 


2.68 


52x84 


2.90 


48x84 


4.83 


64x36 


2.83 


76x52 


2.98 


72x52 


2.08 


72x56 


1.97 




4.68 


60x40 


3.59 


72x42 


2.38 


72x76 


2.37 


72x76 


2.16 


52x88 


3.51 


60x36 


3.34 


72x36 


3.09 


104x40 


3.79 


76x40 


2.05 




1.97 


76x56 



428 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Tiger Mills No. 2 31 

Tiger Mills No. 3 31 

Tiger Mills No. 3 31 

Tiger Mills XXX twills 33 

Tiger Mills XXXX 33 

Tiger Mills fancy 

Triumph Manufacturing Company 30 

York AA 32 

YorkT 30 



YAEDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 




84x60 


2.60 


84x52 


2.71 


72x52 


2.10 


56x56 


1.70 


72x76 


2.05 


60x68 


3.01 


36x96 


2.15 




2.40 





COTTON DRILLS. 



Boott Standard 30 

Clifton K 30 

Darlington Mills 28j*( 

Eureka 29^ 

J P King Manufacturing Company 20 

London Mills XX 30 

Massachusetts Standard 30 

Massachusetts DN 27 

Massachusetts G 30 

Normandie Standard 29 

Pacolet Manufacturing Company 29^ 

Pepperell brown 29 

Pepperell bleached 27 

Pepperell dragon 27 # 

Plymouth Standard 29 >£ 

Plymouth 300 20^ 

Prescott, blue D 30 

Royal Standard, brown 29 

Royal Standard 250X 30 

Royal Standard bleached 28 

Stark HD brown 27 

Stark A improved 30 

Stark A, bleached 28 

Suffolk, standard D 30 



2.85 


76x88 


2.87 


76x52 


2.87' 


72x52 


2.77 


72x48 


2.93 


68x48 


3.52 


64x38 


2.85 




3.05 




3.80 




2.73 


70x52 


2.87 




2.84 


72x52 


3.28 


80x48 


3.36 


80x48 


2.89 




2.60 




3.25 


72x68 


2.72 


64x68 


2.49 


68x56 


3.11 


76x48 


2.48 


66x52 



76x52 



2.85 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



429 



COTTON CHETIOTS. 

WIDTH 

NAME. in 

IN0HE8. 

Amoskeag stripes 21% 

Amoskeag checks 27 % 

Alabama stripes 26 

Algeron plaids 27 

Crown A stripes , 26 

Crown A plaids 28 

Conestoga stripes 28 

Falmouth checks, bb 27 

Forrest Hill 28 

Great Republic 2h% 

Iadna Mills 26 

Philadelphia 26 

Pioneer plaids 28 

Prodigy stripes ' 29^ 

Rosedale 27 

Slater 27 

Santa Rosa 27 X 

Real Caledonia J. C. K 28 

Uncasville 21% 

Uncasville 27 



YAEDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


3.55 




3.32 




4.51 




4.36 


48x33 


4.89 




4.16 




2.69 




4.52 




4.18 


36x40 


4.26 




4.84 




4.51 




4.36 


40x44 


3.85 




5.42 




3.42 




4.45 




4.30 




2.37 




2.37 





DOMESTIC GINGHAMS. 



Amoskeag Mfg. Co 26^ 

Amoskeag staples 2&% 

Amoskeag fancy staples 2%% 

Amoskeag Canton 26 

Amoskeag Canton checks 2%% 

Amoskeag Chalons cloth 26 

Amoskeag Persian 26% 

Amoskeag Zanzibar 25% 

Arasapha Mfg. Co 29 

Bay State 25# 

Caledonia 26 X 

Elberon Seersucker 2h% 

Everett Classics 26 



6.28 


72x76 


5.60 


68x76 


5.56 


68x76 


6.92 


56x60 


6.34 


56x60 


7.53 


48x72 


6.60 


48x56 


5.58 


60x76 


6.44 


36x40 


8.34 


36x44 


6.68 


48x56 


6.38 


40x56 


5.68 


52x72 



430 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



WIDTH 

NAME. in 

INCHES. 

Franklin Suitings 26|^ 

Glenarie 25^ 

Gotham 26^ 

Johnson Mfg. Co 26 

Johnson Pin Checks 26 

Johnson Plaid Checks 26 

Loraine Knotted 29 

Manchester 27 

Monogram 26^ 

Nevelle Seersucker 26 

Parkhill Mfg. Co. Toile Du Nord 25^ 

Pontiac Seersucker 25 

Randelman 

Renfrew, Dress 26 

Renfrew, Novelties 

Tacoma Cloth 25% 

Woodboro Mfg. Co 27 

York Mfg. Co. staples 27 



YABDS 


COUNTS 


TO 


TO 


POUND. 


INCH. 


6.89 


44x72 


6.40 


40x48 


5.91 


44x56 


6.50 


56x68 


6.50 


56x64 


5.90 


64x64 


5.40 


76x80 


6.00 


44x52 


6.50 


48x56 




48x56 


6.70 


60x72 


7.58 


40x56 




40x44 


6.34 


60x60 


5.86 


52x56 


7.30 


48x56 


7.08 


48x56 


5.33 


52x56 




APPENDIX "C." 



THE TARIFF. 



A TABLE OF LEADING ARTICLES IMPORTED, GIVING THE RATE OF TAX- 
ATION AT ENTRY BY THE NEW TARIFF OF 1890. 

The articles covered by the Tariff act of 1890 number several thou- 
sands. The following table embraces about 150 selected articles, being 
mainly those in most general use by the trade throughout the United 
States. N. o. p. indicates "when not otherwise provided for." 

ARTICLES. NEW TARIFF (M'KINLEY) RATE. 

Aniline colors or dyes 35 per cent. 

Bagging for Cotton , 13-5 and 1 4-5 cents per cent. 

Bags, grain 2 cents per pound. 

Beads, ornamental 10 per cent. 

Bindings, cotton 40 per cent. 

Bindings, flax 50 per cent. 

Bindings, wool 60 cents per pound and 60 percent. 

Blankets, value not over 30 cents 

per pound 16^ cents per pound and 30 per cent. 

Blankets, value 30 cents, and not over 

40 cents per pound 22 cents per pound and 35 per cent. 

Blankets, value 40 cents, and not over 

60 cents per pound 33 cents per pound and 35 per cent. 

Blankets, value 60 cents, and not over 

80 cents per pound 38 j£ cts. per pound and 40 per cent. 

Blankets, value over 80 cents per 

pound 38 %. cts. per pound and 40 per cent. 

Bonnets, silk 60 per cent. 

Bonnets, straw 30 per cent. [per cent. 

Buttons, pearl 2%, cents per line per gross and 25 

Buttons, sleeve and collar, gilt 50 per cent. 

Buttons, wool, hair, etc 60 cents per pound and 60 per cent. 

Canvas for sails 50 per cent. 

Caps, cotton 50 per cent. 

Caps, fur and leather 35 per cent. 

Carpets, treble ingrain 19 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

431 



432 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

ARTICLES. NEW TARIFF (m'KINLEY) RATE. 

Carpets, two-ply 14 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

Carpets, tapestry 28 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

Carpets, Wilton and Axminster 60 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

Carpets, Brussels 44 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

Carpets, Velvet 40 cts. per square yd. and 40 per cent. 

Clothing, ready made, cotton n. o. p. .50 per cent. 

Clothing, ready made, linen n. o. p.. . .55 per cent. 

Clothing, ready made, silk, n. o. p.. . .60 per cent. 

Clothing, ready made, woolen n. o. p.. 49^ cents per pound and 60 per cent. 

Cotton trimmings 60 per cent. 

Cotton galloons and gimps 40 per cent. 

Cotton gloves 50 per cent. 

Cotton handkerchiefs 50 per cent. 

Cotton hosiery valued at 60 cents, and 
not more than $2 per dozen pairs. 50 cents per dozen and 38 per cent. 

Cotton hosiery $2 to $4 per dozen 75 cents per dozen and 40 per cent. 

Cotton hosiery more than $4 per 
dozen $1.00 per dozen and 40 per cent. 

Cotton shirts and drawers, value $3 

to $6 per dozen $1.25 per dozen and 40 per cent. 

Cotton velvets, plushes, etc 10 cts. square yard and 20 per cent. 

Cotton Swiss muslin 60 per cent. 

Cotton webbing -. 40 per cent. 

Cotton curtains .- 60 per cent. 

Extracts, Dyewood, Logwood 7 /& cent per pound. 

Fans, palm leaf 30 per cent. 

Felthats 55 per cent. 

Felt shoes 49 J^ cents per pound and 60 per cent. 

Flannels, value not over 30 cents per 
pound 16^ cents per pound and 30 per cent. 

Flannels, value 30 cents to 40 cents. . .22 cents per pound and 35 per cent. 

Flannels, value 40 cents to 50 cents. . .33 cents per pound and 35 per cent. 

Flax, manufactures of 50 per cent. 

Flowers, artificial 50 per cent. 

Fur manufactures 35 per cent. 

Gloves, men's kid and plain $1 .00 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, embroidered $1.50 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, lined $2.50 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, women's kid, plain $1.75 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, women's lined $2.75 per cent not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, suede and schmaschen, em- 
broidered $ .50 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Gloves, suede, lined $1.00 per doz. not less than 50 per cent. 

Hair of hogs, for mattresses 15 per cent. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 433 

ARTICLES. NEW TARIFF (M'KINLEy) RATE. 

Hair manufactures n. o. p 33 cents per pound and 40 per cent. 

Hair braids and ornaments 60 cents per pound and 60 per cent. 

Hair human, unmanufactured 20 per cent. 

Handkerchiefs, linen 55 per cent. 

Handkerchiefs, silk 60 per cent. 

Handkerchiefs, cotton hemstitched. . .35 per cent. 

Hemp cordage, untarred 2% cents per pound. 

Hides, raw, salted, pickled Free. 

Horn, manufactures of 30 per cent. 

India rubber, raw Free. 

India rubber, manufactures 30 per cent. 

India rubber, vulcanized 35 per cent. 

India rubber wearing apparel 50 cents per pound and 50 per cent. 

Ivory manufactures n. o. p 40 per cent. 

Jewelry 50 per cent. 

Jute, burlaps 1 ji cents per pound. 

Jute, for cotton bagging 1 3-5 and 1 4-5 cents per pound 

Jute, other bagging 2 cents per pound. 

Knit Goods, wearing apparel, value 
not over 30 cents per pound 33 cents per pound and 40 per cent. 

Knit Goods, wearing apparel, value 
30 cents, and not over 40 ceets per 
pound 38 K cents per pound and 40 per cent. 

Knit Goods, wearing apparel, value 
40 cents and not over 60 cents per 

pound 44 cents per pound and 50 per cent. 

Knit Goods, wearing apparel, value 
60 cents, and not over 80 cents per 

pound 44 cents per pound and 50 per cent. 

Laces, cotton 60 per cent. 

Laces, linen 60 per cent. 

Leather manufactures n. o. p 35 per cent. 

Linen manufacturies n . o. p 50 per cent. 

Linen wearing apparel 55 per cent. 

Linen thread 45 per cent. 

Mats, cocoa and rattan 8 cents per square foot. 

Matting, jute 6 cents per square yard. 

Muffs, fur 35 per cent. 

Needles, sewing , Free. 

Oil cloths, floor 15 cents square yard and 30 per cent. 

Photograph albums 35 per cent. 

Pins, metal 30 per cent. 

Quilts, cotton 45 per cent. 

Robes, buffalo 35 per cent. 

28 



434 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

ARTICLES. NEW TARIFF (m'KINXJEY) RATE. 

Rope, hemp 50 per cent. 

Rugs, Oriental 60 cents square yard and 40 per cent. 

Sealskin sacque 35 per cent. 

Sheetings, linen 50 per cent. 

Shirts, all or part linen 55 per cent. 

Shoe laces, cotton 40 per cent. 

Shoe laces, leather 35 per cent. 

Shoes, leather 25 per cent. 

Shoes, india-rubber 30 per cent. 

Silk, raw Free. 

Silk Fabrics 50 per cent. 

Silk, spun in skeins 35 per cent. 

Silk laces, embroideries, handker- 
chiefs, and wearing apparel 60 per cent. 

Skins, raw Free. 

Skins, tanned and dressed 20 per cent. 

Soap, castile \% cents per pound. 

Straw manufactures n. o. p 30 per cent. 

Tooth brushes 40 per cent. 

Trimmings, cotton 60 per cent. 

Trimmings, linen 60 per cent. 

Trimmings, lace 60 per cent. 

Trimmings, wool, worsted, etc 60 cents per pound and 60 per cent. 

Towels, linen damask 50 per cent. 

Umbrellas, silk or alpaca 55 per cent. 

Velvets, silk $3.50 per lb, but not less than 50 per ct. 

Willow manufactures 40 per cent. 



THE M'KOLEY TARIFF. 

THE FOLLOWING IS AN OFFICIAL COPY OF THE TARIFF ACT OF 1890, SO 

FAR AS IT CONCERNS THE DRY GOODS AND KINDRED 

BRANCHES OF TRADE. 



COTTON MANUFACTURES. 

Cotton thread, yarns, or warp yarn, whether single or advanced beyond 
the condition of singles, by grouping or twisting two or more single yarns 
together, whether on beams or in bundles, skeins or cops, or in any other 
form, except spool thread of cotton hereinafter provided for, valued at not 
exceeding 25c. per pound, 10c. per pound; valued at over 25c. per lb. and 
not exceeding 40c. per lb. 18c. per lb; valued at over 40c. per lb. and not ex- 
ceeding 50c. per lb., 23c. per lb.; valued at over 50c. per pound and not ex- 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 435 

ceeding 60c. per lb. 28c. per lb.; valued at over 60c. per pound and not 
exceeding 70c. per lb. 33c. per lb.; valued at over 70c. per pound and not ex- 
ceeding 80c. per lb.; 30c. per lb.; valued at over $1 per lb. 50 p. c. ad val- 
orem. 

Spool thread of cotton, containing on each spool not exceeding 100 
yards of thread, 7c. per dozen; exceeding 100 yards on each spool for every 
additional 100 yards of thread or fractional part of 100 yards, 7c. per dozen 
spools. 

Cotton cloth not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, 
and not exceeding 50 threads to the square inch, contained in the warp and 
filling, 2c. per square yard; if bleached, 2>£c. per square yard; if dyed, 
colored, stained, painted or printed, 4c. per square yard. 

Cotton cloth not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, 
exceeding 50 and not exceeding 100 threads to the square inch, counting 
the warp and filling, 2#c. per sq. yd.; if bleached 3c. per sq. yd.; if dyed 
colored, stained, painted or printed, 4c. per sq. yd.; Provided, that on all 
cotton cloth not exceeding 100 threads to the sq. in., counted the warp and 
filling, not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, valued at 
over 6^c. per sq. yd.; bleached, valued at over 9c. per sq. yd.; and dyed, 
colored, stained, painted or printed, valued at over 12c. per sq. yd. there 
shall be levied, collected, and paid a duty of 35c. p. c. ad valorem. 

Cotton cloth not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, 
exceeding 100 and not exceeingl50 threads to thesq. in.; counting the warp 
and filling 3c, per sq. yd.; if bleached, 4c. per sq. yd.; if dyed, colored, 
stained, painted or printed, 5c. per sq. yd.; Provided, that on all cotton 
cloth exceeding 100 and not exceeding 150 threads to the sq. in., counting 
the warp and filling, not bleached, dyed: colored, stained, painted or 
printed, valued at over 7>£c. per sq. yd.; bleached at over 10c. per sq. yd.; 
dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, valued at over 12^c. sq. yd. 
there shall be levied, collected and paid a duty of 40 p. c. ad valorem. 

Cotton cloth, not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, 
exceeding 150 and not exceeding 200 threads to the sq. in., counting the 
warp and filling, 3>^c. per sq. yd.; if bleached, 4>£ per sq. yd.; if dyed, 
colored, stained, painted or printed, 5^c. per sq. yd.; Provided, that on all 
cotton cloth exceeding 150 and not exceeding 200 threads to the sq. in. 
counting the warp and filling, not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted 
or printed, valued at over 8c. per sq. yd.; bleached, valued at over 10c. per 
sq. yd.; dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, valued at over 12c. per 
sq. yd.; there shall be levied, collected and paid a duty of 45 p. c. ad val- 
orem. 

Cotton cloth, not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, 
exceeding 200 to the sq. in., counting the warp and filling, 4>£c. per sq. 
yd.; if bleached 5>^c. per sq. yd.; if dyed, colored, stained, painted or 
printed 6^c. per sq. yd.: Provided, that on all such cotton cloths not 
bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or printed, valued at over 10c. 



436 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

per sq. yd.; bleached, valued at over 12c. per sq. yd., and dyed, colored, 
stained, painted or printed, valued over 15c. per sq. yd., there shall be 
levied, collected, and paid a duty of 45 p. c. ad valorem. Provided fur- 
ther, that on cotton cloth, bleached, dyed, colored, stained, painted or 
printed, containing a mixture of silk, and not otherwise provided for, 
there shall be levied, collected, and paid a duty of 10c. per sq. yd. and 
in addition thereto 35 p. c. ad valorem. 

Clothing ready made, and articles of wearing apparel of every de- 
scription, handkerchiefs and neckties or neckwear composed of cotton or 
other vegetable fiber, or of which cotton or other vegetable fiber is the 
component material of chief value, made up or manufactured wholly or 
in part by the tailor, seamstress or manufacturer, all of the foregoing 
not especially provided for in this act, 50 p. c. ad valorem. Provided, 
that all such clothing, ready made, and articles of wearing apparel 
having india rubber as a component material (not including gloves or 
elastic articles that are especially prqvided for in this act), shall be 
subject to a duty of 50c. per lb., and in addition thereto 50 p. c. ad 
valorem. 

Plushes, velvets, velveteens, corduroys, and all pile fabrics composed 
of cotton or other vegetable fiber, not bleached, dyed, colored, stained, 
painted or printed, 10c. per sq. yd. and 20 p. c. ad valorem; on all such 
goods if bleached, 12c. per sq. yd. and 20 p. c. ad valorem; if dyed, col- 
ored, stained, painted, or printed, 14c. per sq. yd. and 20 p. c. ad valorem; 
but none of the foregoing articles in this paragraph shall pay a less rate 
of duty than 40 p. c. ad valorem. 

Chenille curtains, table covers, and all goods manufactured of cotton 
chenille, or of which cotton chenille forms the component material of chief 
value, 60 p. c. ad valorem. 

Stockings, hose and half-hose, made on knitting machines or frames, 
composed of cotton and other vegetable fiber, and not otherwise especially 
provided for in this act, and shirts and drawers composed of cotton, val- 
ued at not more than $1.50 per dozen, 35 p. c. ad valorem. 

Stockings, hose and half-hose, selvedged, fashioned, narrowed or 
shaped wholly or in part by knitting machines or frames, or knit by hand, 
including such as are commercially known as seamless stockings, hose or 
half-hose, all the above composed of cotton or other vegetable fiber, fin- 
ished or unfinished, valued at not more than 60c. per dozen pairs, and in 
addition thereto 20 p. c. ad valorem; valued at more than 60c. per dozen 
pairs and not more than $2 per dozen pairs, 50c. per dozen pairs, and in 
addition thereto 30 p. c. ad valorem; valued at more than $2 per dozen 
pairs and not more than $4 per dozen pairs, 75c. per dozen pairs, and in 
addition thereto 40 p. c. ad valorem; valued at more than $4 per dozen 
pairs, $1 per dozen pairs, and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad valorem; and 
all shirts and drawers composed of cotton and other vegetable fiber valued 
at more than $1.50 per dozen and less than $3 per dozen, $1 per dozen, and 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 437 

in addition thereto 35 p. c. ad valorem; valued at more than $3 per dozen and 
not more than $5 per dozen, $1.25 per dozen and in addition thereto 40 p. c. 
ad valorem; valued at more than $5 per dozen and not more than $7 per 
dozen, $1.50 per dozen and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad valorem; valued 
at more than $7 per dozen, $2 per dozen, and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad 
valorem. 

Cotton cords, braids, boot, shoe, and corset lacings, 35c. per lb; cotton 
gimps, gallons, webbing, goring, suspenders, and braces, any of the fore- 
going which are elastic or nonelastic, 40 p. c. ad valorem; Provided that 
none of the articles included in this paragraph shall pay less rate of duty 
than 40 p. c. ad valorem. 

Cotton damask, in the piece or otherwise, and all manufactures of 
cotton not especially provided for in this act, 40 p. c. ad valorem. 

FLAX, HEMP, AND JUTE, AND THEIR MANUFACTURES. 

Flax straw, $5 per ton. 

Flax, not hackled or dressed, 1 cent per pound. 

Flax, hackled, known as "dressed line," 3 cents per pound. 

Tow, of flax or hemp, one-half of lc. per pound. 

Hemp, $25 per ton; hemp, hackled, known as line of hemp, $50 per ton. 

Yarn made of jute, 35 p. c. ad valorem. 

Cables, cordage, and twine (except binding twine composed in whole 
or in part of istle or tampico fibre, manila, sisal grass or sunn), l^c. 
per lb; all binding twine manufactured in whole or in part from istle or 
tampico fibre, manila, sisal grass or sunn, seven-tenths of lc. per lb.; 
cables and cordage made of hemp 2>^c. per lb.; tarred cables and cordage 
3c. per pound. 

Hemp and jute carpets and carpetings, 6c. per square yard. 

Burlaps not exceeding 60 inches in width, or flax, jute or hemp, or of 
which flax, jute or hemp, or either of them, shall be the component 
material of chief value (except such as may be suitable for bagging' for 
cotton), l^c. per pound. 

Bags for grain made of burlaps 2c. per pound. 

Bagging for cotton, gunny cloth, and all similar material suitable for 
covering cotton, composed in whole or in part of hemp, flax or jute butts, 
valued at 6c. or less per sq. yd., 1 6-10c. per sq. yd.; valued at more than 
6c. per sq. yd., 1 8-10c. per square yard. 

Oil-cloth for floors, stamped, painted or printed, including linoleum, 
corticene, cork-carpets figured or plain and all other oil-cloth (except silk 
oil-cloth), and water-proof cloth, not specially provided for in this act, 
valued at 25c. or less per sq. yd., 40 p. c. ad valorem; valued above 25c. per 
sq. yd., 15c. per sq. yd. and 30 p. c. ad valorem. 

All manufactures of flax or hemp, or of which these substances, or 
either of them, is the component material of chief value, not specially 



488 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

provided for in this act, 50 p. c. ad valorem; Provided, that until Jan. 1, 
1894, such manufactures of flax containing more than 100 threads to the 
square inch, counting both warp and filling, shall be subject to a duty of 35 
p. c. ad valorem in lieu of the duty herein provided. 

Collars and cuffs, composed entirely of cotton 15c. per dozen pieces 
and 35 p. c. ad valorem; composed in whole or in part of linen 30c. per 
dozen pieces and 40 p. c. ad valorem; shirts and all articles of wearing 
apparel of every description, not specially provided for in this act, com- 
posed wholly or in part of linen, 55 p. c. ad valorem. 

Laces, edgings, embroideries, insertings, neck rufflings, ruchings, trim- 
mings, tuckings, lace window curtains, and other similar tamboured articles, 
and articles embroidered by hand or machinery, embroidered and hem- 
stitched handkerchiefs, and articles made wholly or in part of lace, rufflings, 
tuckings or ruchings, all of the above-named articles composed of flax, jute, 
cotton, or other vegetable fibre, or of which these substances or either of 
them, or a mixture of them is component material of chief value, not 
specially provided for in this act, 60 p. c. ad valorem: Provided, that 
articles of wearing apparel, and textile fabrics, when embroidered by hand 
or machinery, and whether specially or otherwise provided for in this act, 
shall not pay a less rate than that fixed by the respective paragraphs and 
schedules of this act upon embroideries or the materials of which they are 
respectively composed. 

All manufactures of jute, or other vegetable fiber, except flax, hemp or 
cotton, or of which jute, or other vegetable fibre, except flax, hemp or 
cotton is the component material of chief value, not specially provided for 
in this act, valued at 5c. per ft), or less, 2c. ft>.; valued above 5c. per &., 40 
p. c. ad valorem. 

WOOL AND MANUFACTURES OF WOOL. 

All wools, hair of the camel, goat, alpaca and other like animals shall 
be divided for the purpose of fixing the duties to be charged upon them, 
into the three following classes. 

Class one, that is to say, merino, mestiza, metz or metis wools, or other 
wools of merino blood, immediate or remote. Down clothing wools and 
wools of like character with any of the preceding, including such as have 
been heretofore usually imported into the United States from Buenos 
Ayres, New Zealand, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Russia Great Britain, 
Canada and elsewhere, and also including all wools not hereinafter de- 
scribed or designated in classes two and three. 

Class two, that is to say, Leicester, Cotswold, Lincolnshire, Down 
combing wools, Canada long wools, or other like combing wools, of En- 
glish blood; and usually known by the terms herein used, and also hair of 
the camel, goat, alpaca and other like animals. 

Class three, that is to say Donskoi, native South American, Cordova, 
Valparaiso, Russian camel's hair, and including all such wools of like 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 439 

character as have been heretofore usually imported into the United States 
from Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere, excepting improved 
wools hereinafter provided for. 

The duty on wools of the first class which is imported washed shall be 
twice the amount of duty imposed on the unwashed wool; and the duty on 
wools of the first and second classes which is imported scoured, shall be 
three times the duty imposed if imported unwashed. 

Unwashed wools shall be considered such as shall have been shorn 
from the sheep without any cleansing; that is, in the natural condition. 
Washed wools shall be considered such as have been washed with water on 
the sheep's back. Wool washed in any other manner than on the sheep's 
back shall be considered as scoured wool. 

The duty upon all wools and hair of the first class shall be lie per fi> 
and upon all wools or hair of the second class 12c per pound. 

On wools of the third class, and on camel's hair of the third class, the 
value whereof shall exceed 13c per lb., including charges, the duty shall 
be 32 per cent ad valorem. If the value exceeds 13c per lb. the duty shall 
be 50 per cent advalorem. 

On woolen and worsted yarns made wholly or in part of wool, worsted 
or the hair of the camel, goat, alpaca or other animals, valued at not more 
than 30c per lb., the duty per pound shall be two and one-half times the 
duty on unwashed wool of the first class, and in addition thereto 35 p. c. ad 
valorem ; valued at more than 30c and less than 40c per lb. the duty shall 
be three times that imposed on unwashed wool of the first class, and in ad- 
dition thereto 35 p. c. ad valorem ; valued at over 40c per lb. the duty shall 
be three and a half times that imposed on unwashed wool of the first class, 
and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad valorem. 

On woolen or worsted cloths, shawls, knit fabrics, and fabrics made on 
knitting machines or frames, and all manufactures of every description 
made wholly or in part of wool, worsted, or the hair of the camel, alpaca, 
goat or other animals not specially provided in this act, valued at not more 
than 30c per lb. the duty shall be three times the duty imposed on a pound 
of unwashed wool of the first class, and in addition 40 p. c. ad valorem; val- 
ued at more than 30c and less than 40c per lb., the duty per pound shall be 
three and one-half times the duty imposed on unwashed wool of the first 
class, and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad valorem; valued at above 40c per 
lb., four times the duty on a pound of unwashed wool of the first class and 
50 p. c. ad valorem. 

On blankets, hats of wool, and flannels for underwear, composed in 
part or wholly of wool, valued at not more than 30c per lb., the duty per lb. 
shall be the same as that imposed on\% lb. of unwashed wool of the first 
class, and in addition 30 p. c. ad valorem; valued at more than 30c and less 
than 40c per lb., the duty per lb. shall be twice the duty imposed on a pound 
of unwashed wool of the first class; and in addition thereto upon all of the 
above named articles 35 p. c. ad valorem. On blankets and hats of wool 



440 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

composed of wool or hair, wholly or in part, valued at over 50c per lb. the 
duty shall be three and one-half times the duty imposed on a lb. of un- 
washed wool of the first class, and in addition 35 p. c. ad val. Flannels 
Composed wholly or in part of wool or hair, valued at above 50 cts a 
pound, shall be classified to pay the same duty as dress goods, coat linings, 
Italian cloths, and goods of similar character and description, provided by 
this act. 

On women's and children's dress goods, coat linings, Italian cloths, 
and goods of similar character and description of which the warp consists 
wholly of cotton or other vegetable material, valued at not exceeding 15c 
per sq. yd. 7c per sq. yd. and in addition thereto 40 p. c. ad val., valued at 
above 15c per sq. yd., 8c per sq. yard and in addition thereto 50 p. c. ad 
valorem. Provided, That on all such goods weighing over 4 ounces per 
square yard the duty per pound shall be four times that on a pound of un- 
washed wool of the first class and in addition thereto 50 per cent ad 
valorem. 

On women's and children's dress goods and similar fabrics not spec- 
ially provided for in this act the duty shall be 12c per square yard and 
50 p. c. ad valorem. But if such goods weigh over 4 ounces to the sq. yd. 
the duty shall be four times that on a pound of unwashed wool of first class 
and in addition thereto 50 p. c. ad valorem. 

On clothing, ready made, and articles of wearing apparel of every 
description not specially provided for in this act, and plushes and other 
pile fabrics, composed wholly or in part of wool, the duty per pound shall 
be four and one-half times the duty on a pound of unwashed wool of the 
first class, and in addition thereto 60 per cent ad valorem. 

On cloaks, dolmans, jackets, ulsters, or other wraps or outside gar- 
ments composed wholly or in part of wool, the duty per pound shall be 
four and one-half times the duty imposed on a pound of unwashed wool of 
the first class, and in addition thereto 60 per cent ad valorem. 

On webbings, gorings, suspenders, braces, bindings, braids, galloons, 
fringes, cords and tassels, laces and embroideries, head nets or buttons of 
any kind made wholly or in part of wool, the duty shall be 60 cents per 
pound, and in addition thereto 60 per cent ad valorem. 

NEEDLES. 

Needles for knitting or sewing machines, crochet and tape needles and 
bodkins of metal, 35 per cent ad valorem. 

Needles, knitting, and all others not specially provided for in this act, 
25 per cent ad valorem. 

BUTTONS AND BUTTON FORMS. 

Button forms; lastings, mohair, cloth, silk or other manufactures of 
cloth, woven or made in patterns or such size, shape or form, or cut in such 
manner as to be fit for buttons exclusively, 10 per cent ad valorem. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 441 

Buttons, commercially known as agate buttons, 25 per cent ad valorem. 

Pearl and shell buttons, 2%. cents per line, button measure of one-for- 
tieth of an inch, per gross, and in addition thereto 25 per cent ad valorem. 

Ivory, vegetable ivory, bone or horn buttons, 50 per cent ad valorem. 

Shoe buttons made of paper board, papier mache, pulp or other sim- 
ilar material not specially provided for in this act, valued at not less than 
3 cents per gross, 1 cent per gross. 

LEATHER AND MANUFACTURES OF LEATHER. 

Calf skins tanned, dressed upper leather, including patent, japanned 
and enameled leather; chamois or other skins not specially enumerated or 
provided for in this act, 20 per cent ad valorem; bookbinders' calf skins, 
kangaroo, sheep and goat skins, including lamb and kid skins, dressed and 
finished, 20 per cent ad valorem; skins for morocco, tanned but unfinished, 
10 per cent ad valorem; japanned calf skins, 30 per cent ad valorem; boots 
and shoes made of leather, 25 per cent ad valorem. 

Gloves of all descriptions, composed wholly or in part of kid or other 
leather, shall pay at the rates fixed in connection with the following specific 
kinds thereof, 14 inches in extreme length when stretched to the full extent, 
being in each case hereby fixed as the standard, and 1 dozen pairs as the 
basis, namely: Ladies' and children's schmaschen of said length or under, 
$1.75 per dozen; ladies' and children's lamb of said length or under, $2.25 
per dozen; ladies' and children's kid of said length or under, $3.25 per 
dozen; ladies' and children's suedes, of said length or under, 50 per cent 
ad valorem; all other ladies' and children's gloves and all men's leather 
gloves of said length or under, 50 per cent ad valorem; all leather gloves 
over 14 inches in length, 50 per cent ad valorem, and in addition to the 
above rates there shall be paid on all men's gloves $1 per dozen; on all 
lined gloves $1 per dozen; on all pique or prick seam gloves, 50 cents per 
dozen; on all embroidered gloves with more than three single strands or 
cords, 50 cents per dozen pairs. Provided, That all gloves represented to 
be of a kind or grade below their actual kind or grade, shall pay an addi- 
tional duty of $5 per dozen pairs. Provided further, That none of the arti- 
cles mentioned in this paragraph shall pay a less rate of duty than 50 per 
cent ad valorem. 

MISCELLANEOUS MANUFACTURES. 

Feathers and downs of all kinds, not specially provided for in this act 
10 per cent ad valorem. Manufactured articles of feathers and down 
including dressed and finished birds suitable for millinery ornaments, 50 
per cent ad valorem. 

Furs, dressed on the skin but not made up into articles, and furs not 
on the skin, prepared for hatters' use, 20 per cent ad valorem. 

Glass beads, unthreaded, or unstrung, 10 per cent ad valorem. 

Hair cloth, known as crinoline cloth, 8 cents per square yard. 



442 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Hair cloth, known as hair seating, 30 cents per square yard. 

Hair, curled, suitable for beds and mattresses, 15 p. c. ad valorem. 

Manufactures of bone, chip, grass, horn, India-rubber, palm-leaf, straw, 
weeds of whalebone, not specially provided for in this act, 30 p. c. 

Matting made of cocoa-fibre or rattan, 12c. per sq. yd.; mats made of 
same, 8c. per sq. foot. 

Plush, black, known commercially as hatters' plush, composed of silk 
or silk and cotton, and used exclusively for making men's hats, 10 p. c. 

Umbrellas, parasols and sunshades, covered with silk or alpaca, 55 p. c; 
if covered with any other material 40 p. c. 

Handles for umbrellas, parasols and sunshades, if plain 35 p. c; if 
carved, 50 p. c. 

FREE LIST. 

On and after the 6th day of October, 1890, unless otherwise specially 
provided for in this act, the following articles when imported shall be 
exempt from duty: 

Bolting cloth, especially for milling purposes, but not suitable for 
wearing appearel. 

Coir and coir yarn. 

Cotton and cotton waste, or flocks. 

Fans, common palm leaf, and palm leaf unmanufactured. 

Floor matting manufactured from round or split straw, including what 
is commonly known as China matting (old tariff 20 p. c.) 

Furs, undressed. 

Istle, or Tampico fibre. 

Jute and jute butts; manila, sisal grass and sunn. 

Hides, raw or uncured, whether dry, salted or pickled, Angora goat 
skins, raw, without the wool, asses' skins, and all other skins, with the wool 
on, except sheep skins. 

India-rubber, crude, and milk of, or old scrap or refuse India-rubber 
which has been worn out by use and is fit only for remanufacture. 

Ivory and vegetable ivory, not manufactured. 

Needles, hand, sewing and darning. 

Silk, raw, or as reeled from the cocoon, but not double, twisted or 
advanced in manufacture in any way. 

Whalebone, unmanufactured. 



That on and after the first day of March, 1891, all articles of foreign 
manufacture, such as are usually or ordinarily marked, stamped, branded, 
or labeled, and all packages containing such or other imported articles, 
shall respectively be plainly marked, stamped, branded, or labeled in 
legible English words, so as to indicate the country of their origin; and 
unless so marked, stamped, branded, or labeled they shall not be admitted 
to entry. 



APPENDIX "D." 



A LIST OF GERMAN WORDS AND PHRASES WITH ENGLISH 
SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION. 



To those who desire to obtain a practical knowledge of German trade 
words and phrases, and have but a limited time to devote to it, the follow- 
ing list will afford a speedy and thorough grounding in all that is necessary 
for conversational purposes. Clerks and salesmen will find the list to be 
especially beneficial, inasmuch as nowadays a situation often depends 
upon the clerks' ability to speak German; and it is not an infrequent oc- 
currence that a clerk who possesses this accomplishment is allowed con- 
siderably more in salary than the one who lacks it. Merchants, even, will 
find that the ability to carry on a store conversation in German rarely ever 
fails to produce a favorable impression, and sometimes is of immense ad- 
vantage, in dealing with German customers. 

Ah should be pronounced as a in "father;" ch has the sound of k or kh. 

A — ine 

Acceptable — an ' -nam-bar 

Again — ve ' -dar 

All-wool — gans wolla 

All right — gans goot; or, ine ' -ver-stand-an 

Alpaca — alpaca 

Aluminum — aluminium 

American — Amer-i-can ' -esch 

American cloth — amer-i-can ' -eshar stoff 

And — und 

Angora wool — angora woll'-a 

Any — et'-was; or, ine'-e-gas 

Anilin — an-e-lene ' 

Anything — ehr'-gend et-was 

April — Ap ' -ril 

Apron — schurtz ' -a 

August — August 

Arctics — e ' -ber-schu 

Astrakhan — astrakhan 

Baby — kind 

Baby cap — kinder kap'-pa 

443 



444 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Back (as of cloth) — ruk-si'-ta 

Band — band-ine ' -fassung 

Bandana — das si-de'-na-tukh 

Bankrupt — bank ' -rott 

Barege — barege 

Barter — towsh or tausche 

Basket flannel — korb flan-nell' 

Basket weave — karb ga-flecht' 

Bathing suit — bad-e ' -anzukh 

Batting — vah'-ta or vaht'-ta 

Be — zine or sein 

Beads — pear ' -lin 

Beautiful — shane; or, proct'-vall 

Beaver cloth — cah'-stor stoff 

Bed clothes — bed tukh 

Bed gown — bed dek ' -ke 

Bed linen — bed li'-nen 

Bed quilt — bed mat-trat ' -ze 

Bed tick — bed e'-ber-tsug 

Berlin wool — Ber-li ' -ner-wolla 

Best— bes'-ta 

Better — bes ' -ser 

Between — zwis'-chen; or, twisch'-en 

Bib — let'-zchen; or, bu'-shen 

Blanket — wolla bed tukh 

Bleached — geb-leicht ' 

Blouse — blu'-za 

Blouse waist — blu'-zen wes'-ta 

Blue — blaw 

Bobbinet — spitz ' -en-grund 

Bolster — pole'-ster; or, kis'-sen 

Bolt— bahl' -len 

Bonnet— hoot 

Book muslin — boak mus-lene' 

Boots (long) — steef'el; (low) schuh 

Bought — ga ' -kowf t 

Box (large) — kiss'-ta; (small) kiss'-tschen 

Braid — be-satz 

Breeches — bine'-kleid'-ar; or, ho'-zen 

Broadcloth — fi'-nes tukh 

Brocade — bro ' -kat 

Bring — bring ' -en 

Buckle — schnal ' -la 

Buckram — steef line ' -vand 

Bunting — flagg' -stoff; or, flag'-stouf 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 445 

Burlaps — yu ' -ta 

Bustle — kueh 

Butcher's linen — schlak'-ter li'-nen 

Butter cloth — butter-stoff 

Buttons — k'nap ' fa 

Buy — kow ' -fen 

Calfskin — kalbs ' -fell 

Calico — calicot 

Call again — kom ' -en ze we ' -dar 

Call in again — kom ' -en ze we ' -dar ha-rine ' ; or, kom ' -en ze we ' -dar fore 

Cambric — cambric 

Camel's hair — kam-ale ' haar 

Can I?— Darf ich? 

Cannot — kann nicht 

Canton flannel — woll flan-nell' 

Canvas (fine) — can'-na-vis; (coarse) — per-sen'-ig 

Cap (for child) — kap'-pa; (for men) — mu'-tsa 

Cape — kap'-pa; or, um ' -schlag-tukh 

Cardigan jacket — cardyan jack '-a 

Carpet — tep ' -pich 

Cashmere — kasch ' -mere 

Cashmere shawl — kasch '-mere schaal 

Cassimere — ine'-f acker woll-stoff 

Celluloid — eel ' lo-lu-ede ' 

Chair — stool 

Chambray — chambray 

Change (to exchange) — um ' -tow-schen 

Change (money) — weck'-seln 

Check — ahn ' -weis-ung 

Checkered — kar ' -riert 

Cheese-cloth — kazy ' -gaze 

Chemise — nacht hembt 

Chemisette — fore ' -hembt 

Chen ille — Chen-nil ' -ya 

China silk — Chi'-na si-da 

Chintz — zitz 

Cloak — um ' -schlag-tukh ; or, man ' -tel 

Clock — uhr 

Cloth — stoff, or stuff 

Clothes — klei ' -dar 

Clothier — klei ' -dar handler 

Coat — rogh or rok 

Collar — krah ' -gen 

Color — f ahr ' -ba 

Come — kom '-en ze 



446 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Comfort (quilt) — spra-deck ' -a 

Contrast — ga'-gensatz; or, un ' -ter-schede 

Cord — schnure 

Corset — kor'-sett 

Corset jean — kor'-sett ba-klei ' -dung 

Cotton — bom'-wolla 

Cottonade — ar-bi ' -tar stoff 

Count — tzay'-len or tsa'-len 

Counter — lad'-den-tish (bench) 

Counterpane — li ' -nen-tukh 

Coverlet — coverlet 

Crape — krapp; or, flor 

Crash — li ' -nen-handt ' -tukh 

Cravat — kra-vaht ' -ta 

Cretonne — kre-tonn ' 

Crewel — ga-tzwirn ' -tes garn 

Crinoline — kren-o-lene' 

Cuffs — mahn-schat ' -ten 

Curtain (thick, heavy) — fore-hane ' -ga 

Curtain (lace) — gar-dene ' -en 

Cut — schni'-dan; or, schnitt 

Damask — dahm ' -ahst 

Damp — dum'-feg; or, ba-deckt' 

Dark — dunk ' -el 

Day — tahg or tag 

December — Da-cam ' -ber 

Delaine — wall ' -an 

Desk — pult * 

Diaper — ga-blume'-tas li'-nin 

Dickey — fore ' -hembt 

Difference — unter-'ter scheet 

Dimity — ga'-ka'-parta par'tchant 

Distinction — un ' -ter-scheet 

Ditto — a ' -ban-fahlls 

Do — tu ' -an 

Do you need any dry goods? — Brow '-ken ze ell' -en-vah ' -ren ? 

Do you speak German? — sprach'-en ze Deutsch? 

Dogskin — hund ' -a-fall 

Dog cheap — re'-sig bil'-lich 

Dollar — thah ' -lar 

Dolman — dolman 

Domet — dril ' -lich 

Do not go — ga'-han ze nicht 

Door — tu ' -ar 

Double-dyed — dop ' -pelt ga-farbit ' 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 447 

Dozen — dut' -zend 

Doyley — ser-vi-et ' -ta 

Drab — licht braun (brawn) 

Drape — drab-pere ' -an 

Draper — drah-pere ' -ar 

Drawers (for women) — unter-bine-kleider 

Drawers (for men) — unter-ho ' -zen 

Dress (for women) — klide or kleid 

Drilling — dril ' -lich 

Drugget — dro-guet ' 

Dry goods — kurtz ' -vah ' -ren ; or ell '-en vah'-ren 

Due-bill — fel'-li-ga rech'-nung 

Dust — stawb 

Dyed — ga-f arbt ' 

Eiderdown — eider-du ' -nan 

Eight — ahcht or acht 

Eighty — ahcht ' -zig 

Eighteen — ahcht '-zhan 

Elastic cord — gum ' -mi let ' -za 

Elastic web — gum ' -mi band 

Eleven — elf 

Ell— el' -la 

Enough — gan-ugh ' 

Embroidery — stick ' -e-ri 

Embroidery silk — stick ' -si ' -da 

Examine — an ' -zane 

Except — owse-ga-nom ' -an 

Expenses — cost '-en; or, owsi'lahg-en 

Expensive — toy'-er; or, kost'-bar 

Face (as of cloth) — o'ber-si'ta; or, o'ber-fleck'-a 

Factory — fahb-rique ' 

False hair — fawl'-chas hahr (haar) 

Fade — bli'-ken; or, ap-bli'-ken or schwin'-dan 

Fan — feh'-yahr or fa '-hahr 

Fancy — f an-tash ' -tish 

Fashion — mo ' -da 

Fashion plate — mo ' -da bild 

Fast color— acht fahr'-big 

Featherbone — fa ' -der-bine 

Feathers — fa ' -dern 

Febuary — Fa ' -bru-ahr ' 

Fell — fal'-len 

Felt— feltz 

Few — ine'-e-ga va'-ne-ga 

Fichu — hals-tukh 



448 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Fifteen — f umf ' -zahn 

Five — fimf 

Fifty — f umf ' -zig 

Fine — shane or shuhrn 

Flag— flag' -ga 

Flannel — flan-nell ' 

Flax — flachs (flax) 

Fleece — fleece 

Floss — stick-si ' -da 

Fold — zu-zam ' -man-pack ' -en 

Foot — fuhs or fu"-us 

For — fere 

Forty — fere ' -tzig 

Four — fere 

Fourteen — fere ' -tzan 

Friday — Fri ' -tahg 

Fringe — f rahn ' -za 

Frieze — frese 

From — fon or von 

Fur — paltz 

Gaiter — ga-mah ' -schen 

Galloon — bor ' -den 

Galoshes — gum '-mi schu'-a or o'-ber schu'-a 

Garment — ga ' -vand 

Garter — strumpf ' -band 

Gauntlet — pan-zar-hand ' -schu 

Gauze — gah ' -za 

German knitting worsted — Deu'-tcha strick wolla 

Gimp — zi'-da-na spitz '-an 

Get — bring '-an; or, hole '-an 

Gingham — gingham 

Girdle — ger ' -tie 

Girl — maid ' -tschan 

Give — ga'-ban 

Glove — hahnd ' -schu 

Go — ga ' -han 

Ga! (German) — Get out of here! 

Good — goot 

Good bye — ad-dieu ' -a 

Good day — goot ' -en tag 

Good evening — goot-en ab ' -end 

Good morning — goot'-n mor'-gan 

Goodnight — goot '-en nacht (nakt) 

Goods (merchandise) — vah'-ren 

Gossamere — durch ' -sech-tech 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 449 

Got — emp-fing ' 
Gown — dare-lahn ' -ga-rok 
Grade (quality)— klahs ' -sa or qual-e'-tat 
Grain (as of silk) — f ah ' -den 
Gray — grow 
Green — gru ' -en 
Grenadine — grenadine 
Grosgrain — dig-fah ' -dig 
Gutta-percha — gutta-percha 
Hair-net — hahr-netz 
Half — hawlp or hahlb 
Hammock — hang ' -maht-ta 
Handkerchief — tasch ' -an-tukh 
Hand — hahnd 

Hank — zum k'nawul bild'-en 
Has — haht 
Hat— hut 

Have — habt or hah '-ben 
Haversack — hah ' -f er-sahk 
Hemp — hanf 
Hemstitch — zaum 
Hence — in tzu ' -kumft 
Her — ehr; or ear 
Him — ehm 

Home — haus or house 
Homely— has ' -lich 
Holland — see Curtain 
Hood — hau'-ba 

Hooks and eyes — hak'-an und uhr'-zan 
Hoops — ri'-fan 
Hoopskirt — ri ' -fan 
Hose — strump ' -fa 
Hot — vahrm 
Hour — stun '-da 
House — haus 
How — We 

How large? — We gros? 
How much ? — We feel ? 
How of ten?— We oft? 

How late? or, what o'clock is it? — We spate? or We spate estas? 
How is your health? (or business) — We gaitz eh 'am? 
Hundred — hunde'-art or hoond'-art 
Husband — mahn; or, ga'-mahl 
Hunt — su'-ken 
I— ich 
29 



450 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

I am told — ich here'-ta 

I do — ich tu ' -a 

I do not — ich tu'-a nicht 

I take — ich na'-ma 

I take the liberty of — ich binn zo fry tzu 

I will (future tense) — ich var ' -da 

I will (present tense) — ich vill 

In — in 

Inch — tzoll 

Indeed — vir ' -klich 

Indigo — indigo 

India rubber — gum ' -mi 

Indigo blue — indigo blaw 

Inform — sah ' -gan 

Ingrain — in dare wolla ga'-farbt' 

In stock — auf lah ' -ger 

Invoi c e — rechnung 

Inventory — in ' -ven-tahr 

Is — ist 

It — ess or s 

I can — ich kann 

I will call on you — ich ver'da we'der for'-spreck-ken 

I will come to see you — ich kom'-ma zu ene'en 

Jaconet — fi ' -nar mus-lene ' 

Jannary — Jan-u-ahr ' 

Jersey — jersey 

July— July 

June — Ju-nee' 

Jute — yu ' -ta 

Kind — art 

Kilt — kort'-zas ruck'-zhen 

Knitting cotton — bom-wollon ' -us strick'-garn; or strick wolla 

Knitting silk — strick si '-da 

Knitting needles — strick nod '-die 

Knit Underwear (cotton)— ges-strick ' -tas un ' -ter-zeug 

Knit Underwear (wool) — flan-nell ' un ' -ter-zeug 

Knit Underwear (silk) — si-da un ' -ter-zeug 

Lace — spit'-za 

Lady — frow; or, madam 

Lady (unmarried) — f rau-line ' 

Lambrequin — fore-hang ' 

Large — gross; or, ba-doy'-tand 

Lawn — lin'-own; or, schlier'-line-vand 

Leather — la ' -dar 

Left— ga-las ' -san 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 451 

Left (direction) — link '-a 

Left hand — link ' -a hahnd 

Less — va ' -ne-gar 

Light (color) — lecht 

Light (weight)— licht 

Lighter (weight) — Iichter 

Lightest weight — am licht '-a-stan 

Line — lene ' -ya 

Linen — li ' -nen 

Lining — foot '-air or fut'-tar 

Lisle thread — lisle ge-vay'-ba 

Look — sa'-han ze 

Mad der — f air-ba-roy ' -tha 

Made — ga-macht ' 

M akes no difference — das macht nix 

Man — mann 

Manufacturer — f ab-rik-ant ' 

Many — feel' -a 

Many times — oft 

March (month)— Martz 

Mark — tzeick ' -nan 

Mark down — her-un'-ter zet'-zen 

Market — hahn ' -die 

Matting (floor) — foos'-matta 

May — my 

Me — mere 

Measure — mahs; or, maws 

Medium quality — mit'-ler-a gweet'-ta 

Men — loy'-ta; or, mann'-er 

Merino — merino 

Milliner — mo-dis'-tin; or, putz ' -mack-ehr-in 

Million — million 

Minute (time) — mi-nu'-ta 

Miss— Frau-line ' 

Mister — Herr; or, Hahr 

Mistress — Dahm ' -ma 

Mode — mode 

M ohai r — kah-mal-hahr 

Moire — moire-wolla 

Monday — Mon ' -tagh 

Money — geldt 

Month — mo-naht ' 

Mosquito netting — mosquito netz 

Mourning — trow ' -ar 

Muff— muff 



452 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Much — feel 

Muffler— hals-krawg ' -gen 

Mull — mull 

Muslin — mus-lene ' 

Myrtle green — muer ' -ten gru ' -en 

Nainsook — nainsook 

Nankeen — nankeen 

Nap — nap ' -pa 

Napping— k'no ' ^ten 

Napkin — serviet ' -ta 

N arrow — ankh 

Neckcloth— hals ' -tukh 

Necktie— hals-bin' -da; or slips 

Needle — nod '-die or nah'-dle 

Net (fabric)— netz 

Net (price) — ne'-to 

New — noy 

Nice— schorn, or shane, or shaney 

Night gown — nacht hempt 

Night shirt— nacht hempt 

Nine — noin 

Nineteen — noin ' -tzan 

Ninety— noin' -zig 

No — nine 

Normal — nor-mahl' or nor-mawl 

Not — necht; or, nix 

Nothing — nix; or, kine'-en 

Nottingham lace— Nottingham spitz '-a 

November — November 

Now — yetzt 

Nubia— nu'-bisch'-a bin '-da 

Number — num ' -mare 

Nursery cloth— kin ' -der kleid'-ar 

Nursery pins — zick ' er-hitze ' -noddle 

October— October 

Of — fon or fawn 

Oil cloth— oil tukh 

Oil red— oil far'-ba 

Oiled silk— wox taf'-fet 

Oilskin coat— wox taf ' -f et e ' -ber tzukh 

Oil clothing — wox -tukh 

Old— ahlt or awlt 

On — owf or auf 

On (time) — ahmm or awm 

One — ine 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 453 

One-half — ine hawlp 

One hundred — ine hoond'-art 

One-quarter — ine fere ' -tie 

Organzine — organzine 

Ostrich feathers — straus'-sen fa'-dern 

Out — owse 

Out of date, or out of stock — owse ga speeldt 

Overcoat — e'-ber-rock; or, e'-ber-tze'-har 

Package — pack-kate ' 

Pantaloons — bine ' -kleider 

Paper — pa-pier ' 

Paper collar — pa-pier' krawg'-en 

Parasol — zone ' -an-scbirm 

Partner — tile hawb-er; or tzo'-tius 

Partnership — tile hawb-er-shaft 

Pattern — moos ' -ter 

Pearl — pare ' -iin 

Pearl button — parl-moot ' -er-k'nap ' -fa 

Pen — fa'-der 

Pencil — blize ' -tift 

Pen-holder — fa ' -der hoi ' -tare 

People — folk; or loy'-ta 

Petticoat — frau ' -en-rok 

Pile — o ' -ber-fieck ' -ke 

Pillow — kopf ' -kis ' -sen 

Pillow case — kopf ' -kiss ' -en e ' -ber-tzukh 

Pin — steck-noddle 

Pink — fleisch-fahr ' -ba 

Place — platz 

Plaid (pattern) — care-riert or cah'-riert 

Plain — ine ' -fach 

Pleasant; — an ' -ga-name or an-ga-na ' -mar 

Pleat— fahl ' -ta 

Plenty — ga-nuck ' or ga-nu ' -ga 

Plush — ploosh 

Ply (fold)— fach or fahch 

Polite — hur ' -flich 

Polonaise — polonaise 

Pongee silk — pongee si '-da 

Poor (quality) — ga-rin'-ga 

Poor (not rich) — ar'-mes 

Poplin — pah-pe-lene ' 

Portiere — fore ' -*hangk 

Pretty — pracht'-ful; or hepsch; or nett 

Price — prize 



454 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Prints — ga ' -druckt 

Promise — fore ' -spracken 

Purple — pur ' -pur 

Pure wool — rine ' -wolla 

Pure (merchandise) — rine 

Pure (liquids) — klare 

Quilling — spool ' -la 

Quilt — bed'-dek-ke; or, polster 

Quilted — ga-poll ' -start 

Quality — qweet ' -ta 

Quarter — fere ' -tie 

Rain — ra'-gan 

Rear — hin ' -ten 

Red — rote 

Regular — ga-vern ' -lich 

Regular made — ra ' -gal-recht ga-makt' 

Remnant — e ' -ber-est 

Retail — da '-tile 

Ribbon — bahnd 

Right (direction) — reckts 

Right (proper) — reckt 

Roll — bal ' -len ; or, roll ' -a 

Rubber — gum ' -mi 

Rubbers — gum '-mi schua 

Rug — row '-hare tep'-pick; or, row '-hare deck '-a 

Russian embroidery — Rus'schick-a stick -er-i' 

Russet — dunk ' -el brawn 

Sack — sacque 

Sacque — zack ' -oat 

Safety-pin — zick ' er-heitz ' -noddle 

Salary — ga-halt ' 

Same — de-sel ' -ba 

Sample — mu ' -ster 

Satchel — zack-schen 

S ate en — bom-wol ' -la-nar dam ' -ast 

Satin — at '-las 

Satin ribbon — at '-las bahnd 

Satinet — halb-atlas 

Saturday — Zon'-a-hend; or Zams'-tagh 

Scarf — hals-bin'-da; or slips 

Scarlet — shar ' -lack 

Scarce — zel ' -ten 

Scissors — schar ' -a 

Scrim — fore ' -hangh 

Sealskin — za-huntz ' -fell 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 455 

Second (time) — se-koon'-da 

Second (number) — zwi'-ta 

Second quality — zwi'-ta gweet'-ta 

See — za'-hay 

See (if used in the sense of visiting) — bc-zu'-ken 

September — September 

Serge — zerche 

Servietta — servietta 

Seven — see- ' ben 

Seventeen — zeep ' -tzan 

Seventy — zeep ' -tzig 

Sew — na ' -han 

Sewing — na ' -hand 

Sewing machine — nay-machine ' -a 

Sewn — ga ' -nate ' 

Shade (color) — fahr ' -ba 

Shall I?— zollich? 

Shalloon — schal-longh ' 

Shawl — schahl 

Sheet — bet ' -tukh 

Sheeting — bet-li ' -nen 

Shirt — hembt 

Shirting — hembt-li ' -nen 

Shirt waist — fore ' -hembt-chan 

Shoddy — shoddy 

Shoe — Schu 

Shoes — schu '-a 

Short — kurtz 

Shot silk — ra ' -gan-bo ' -gan-f ar ' -be-ga si '-da 

Show — tzi ' -gan 

Show window — schaw-fan ' -ster 

Showcase — owse-lah ' -ga 

Shroud — grahb ' -tukh 

Sidewalk — foose ' -vague 

Silesia — Schlaza 

Silk — si ' -da 

Silk cord — si'-den-a schnure 

Since — dah-hayr'; or, da-hair'; or site 

Six — zax 

Sixteen— zex'-tzan 

Sixty — zex'-tzig 

Size — groys ' -sa 

Simple — ine ' -fack 

Simply — nure 

Skein — strangk 



456 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Skirt — ine ' -fas ' -sung ; or, bor'-ta 

Small — kline 

Socks — strump ' -fa 

Some — ine ' -e-ga 

Son — zohn 

Speak — spreck ' .en 

Splendid — prackt ' -ful 

Spatterdash — gam-ash ' -en 

Spoke — ga-sprak ' r or, ga ' -spok-en 

Square (measurement) — fere ' -eek-ig 

Square (honest) — pass '-end; or ar'lich 

Stockinet — strumpf-ga-va ' -ba 

Stockings — strump ' -fa 

Stocking yarn — strick'-wolla 

Stool — stool 

Store — lad ' -dan 

String — binde-fad'-en; or, schnure 

Stripe — stri ' -fan 

Style — steel 

Suit (for man) — an ' -zukh 

Sun — zohn'-na 

Sunday — Zun ' -tagh 

Sunshade — zohn ' -nan-schirm 

Sure — zick'-air 

Suspenders — ho-zen-tra ' -ger 

Swiss Embroidery — Schwitzer stick '-er-i' 

Table linen — tish ' -tzoig 

Table cloth — tish'-tukh 

Table damask — dam ' -ast-tukh 

Taffeta— tafft 

Take — na ' -men 

Tailor — schni ' -dar 

Tapestry (hangings) — tap-a'-ta 

Tapestry (floor) — tap ' -pich 

Tariff — tare-efe ' 

Tarlatan — tarlatan 

Tassel — quast; or, trod '-die 

Tell — zah ' -gen 

Ten — tzane 

Terry cloth — terry cloth 

Textile — va ' -ber-ri ' 

Than — als 

Thank — dank ' -en 

Thank you — drank ' -a Ene ' -en 

That — dass 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 457 

The — (masculine) der; (feminine) de; (neuter) das 

Them — ee ' -nan 

Then — dahn or dann 

There — dar or dah 

There are — dar zint 

Therefore — dar-uhm ' ; or vile 

There is — ess geebt 

These — de'-za 

They — ze 

Thimble — finger-huth 

Thing — ding; or, sah'-ca 

Thirty — dry'-sig 

Thirteen — dry ' -tzan 

This — dese'-es 

Those — ya'-na 

Thousand — tows ' -and 

Thread — f ah '-den; or, zweern 

Three — dry 

Three-quarters — dry-fere ' tie 

Thursday — Don ' -nars-tagh 

Tick (for bed) — e'ber-tzukh; or tzie'-ka 

Ticking — drahel 

Tie (wrap) — bin '-den or pah'kan 

Tie (a bow)— bahnd; or schli'-fa 

Time — tzite 

Tinsel — broca-tel' ; or lighter bro-caht' 

Tippet — pelz'-krah-gen; or, pel-lar-e ' -na 

Tissue — ga-va ' -ba 

To — mere or tzu 

To-day — hoy ' -ta 

To make — mock ' -an 

To you — e'-nan 

Tortoise-shell — schild-kroyten-schal ' -la 

Towel — hahnd ' tukh 

Town — stadt 

Told— zahg'-ta 

Tolerable — shreck ' -lich 

Took — nahm or namm 

Trade — han'-dle 

Trade-mark — handles-mark 

Trimming — -auf ' -puty 

Trousers — ho ' -zen 

Trunk — koff ' -er 

Trust (credit) — kra-de-tere'-an 

Trust (confide) — an ' -fer-trow ' -an 



458 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Tuesday — Deens ' -tagh 

Turkey red — Turkirch roth 

Turkish towels — Tur'-kish-a hand ' -tu-kair 

Tweed — tweed 

Twelve — tzwelve 

Twenty — tzwahn ' -tzig 

Twill — ga-kag ' -pert 

Twine — tzweern, or bin '-far '-den 

Two — zwy or swi 

Ugly — has'-lich 

Ulster — uls ' -tare 

Umbrella — ra ' -gan-schirm 

Unacceptable — un ' -an-nam-bar 

Unbleached — un ' ga-blicht 

Under — un'-ter 

Undergarments — un'-ter-kli'-da 

Undershirt — un ' -ter-hembt 

Understand — fur-stay ' -han 

Underwear — un ' -ter-tzoig 

Undressed — (leather)tzuga-rich-i ' -tat 

Unequal — un ' -glich 

Unequalled — un ' -fer-glick ' -lich 

Uneven — un ' -glick 

Up — hin-owf 

Upon — owf 

Upholstery — tap-a-zier ' -ar 'bite 

Us — uns 

Use— ga-brauck ' 

Utrecht velvet — oo'treckt ploosch 

Veil — schly'-ar 

Velvet— velvat; or, ploosch 

Velveteen — bom woll-ploosch 

Vest— ves ' ta 

Valentia — valentia 

Valuable — vert ' -f ul 

Value — varte 

Very well — gants goot 

Wadding — vat ' -ta 

Waist (of the body) — tal'ya 

Waist-band — lipe ' -gurt 

Waist shirt — fore'-hembt 

Warm— vahrm or varm 

Warmus — ga-strick ' a-woll-yak ' -a 

Warp — kaht'-a; or kot'-a 

Wash — vasch ' an 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 459 

Wash-blonde — vasch-t londe 

Waste — fare-swan ' -den 

Watch — (time-piece)wasch; or auf pas-san 

Well — goot 

Watered — vally; or val'-lae 

Watered silk — ga-vel-ta si '-da 

Water — vass ' -er 

Waterproof — vass ' -er-dicht 

We — veer 

Weave — va ' -ban 

Web — ga-va ' -ba 

Wednesday — Mitt ' -vokh 

Week — vokh ' -a 

Whalebone — fish-bine 

What — vass or vhas 

What is the value of this?— vass kas'-tat deez'-es? 

Where — vo 

Which — vel'-chass; or vel'-kass 

White — vice 

Who — vahr; or vare 

Why — var ' -uhm 

Wide — vite; or brite 

Widow — vit-fa 

Wife — frou; ga-mah'-lin 

Wigan — cal ' -e-ko 

Will you? — Wal'-lin ze? 

Window — fen ' -ster 

Window blind — gar-de'-na; or, fore'-hangh 

Window curtain — fen 'ster fore '-hang; or, gar-de'-nan 

Woman — frou 

Women — frou ' -en 

Wool — wolla 

Woolen — woll ' -an 

Worsted — kamm-voll ' en-es garn 

Worth — vert 

Would you? — kern '-en ze? or verd'-en ze? 

Wrap (to encase) — tzu-zam' -man-pack '-en 

Wrap (garment) — ume-schlac'-tukh 

Wrong — un-recht'; or, falsch 

Worse — schlec ' -ter 

Worst — schlect ' -tes-ta 

Worthless — vert ' -lace 



460 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Interrogative Phrases. 

Who?— Vair? 

Who was it? — Vaire var es? 

What is it? — Vas ist es? 

Who is it? — Vair ist es? 

What are you doing? — Vas toon ze? 

What is he doing? — -Vas toot air? 

Tell me — Zaa'gen ze meer 

Will you tell me? — Vollen ze meer zaa'-gen 

How are you? — Vee gates 

How is he? — Vee gates eem? 

Why ? — Varoom ? 

What for? — Vo-fee-yur' ? 

Is it ready? — Ist es fair'-tig 

Do you hear? — Heuren ze? 

Where is he? — Vo ist air? 

Where is she? — Vo ist zee? 

Where is it? — Vo ist es? 

Where are you going? — Vo ga'-ze hin? 

Where do you come from? — Vo Kom'-men ze hair? 

Where were you? — Vo va'ren ze? 

What?— Vas? 

What is it? — Vas ist is? 

What is that? — Vas ist das? 

What have you? — Vas hav'-hen zee? 

What do you say? — Vas zaa'-gen ze? 

What do you mean ? — Vas mi ' nen ze ? 

What do you want? — Vas vollen ze? 

Affirmative Phrases. 

It is true — Es ist var 

It is so — Es ist zo 

I believe it — Ich glow 'bay es 

I think so — Ich denk'ay es 

I say it is — Ich zah'gay es ist 

I am certain — Ich bin gay-viss' 

I am certain of it — Ich bin dessen gay-viss' 

You are right — Ze haa'ben recht 

I know it — Ich vice es 

I know it well— Ich vice es ge-now' 

I promise it to you — Ich ver-sprech'ay es een'en 

I will give it to you — Ich vill es een'en gay 'ben 

You are wrong — Ze hoa'ben oon' recht 

Very well — Zare vole 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 461 

Imperative Phrases. 

Come away! — Kom'-men ze fort! 
Come here! — Kom'-men ze heer'-hair! 
Go there! — Gay'en ze dort'-hin! 
Comeback! — Kom'-men ze tsoo-reuck'! 
Goon! — Gay '-en ze vi'-ter! 
Sit down! — Set '-sen ze zick! 

Easy Expressions. 

If you please — gue'-tigst 

Yes, Sir — yah, mine hair 

Yes, Madam — yah, mad-am' 

No, Sir — Nine, mine hair 

No, Madam — Nine, Mad-am' 

No, Miss — Nine, f rau ' -line 

Do you speak German? — Sprechen ze doytsh? 

I do not speak German — Ich sprehen nicht doytsh 

I speak it a little — Ich sprechary et'-vas doytsh 

I understand — Ich ferstay 

Do you understand ? — Ferstay ' -en ze ? 

Can you understand? — Kenn'-nen ze ferstayen 

You speak too fast — Ze sprechen tsoo shnell 

What do you say? — Vas zah'-gen ze? 

Do you understand me? — Ferstayen ze mich 

I speak German — Ich sprach'-a Deutsh 

What can we show you to-day? — Vass cann ich ene'-en hoy'-ta tsi'-gan? 

How many yards? — We feel' -a ell' -en 

How much do you want? — We feel voll'-en ze? 

It will not fade — Es virt nicht ap-bli'-ken 

Shall I send the linen home? — Zoll ich ene'-en de line'-vand ens haus 

shick ' -en ? 
What will you have? — Voss vin'-chen ze? 
Yard — ell ' -a 
Yarn — garn or gahrn 
Year — yar or yahr 
Yellow — gelp 
Yes — yah 
You — ze 

Yesterday — ges ' -tern 
Is it fast color? — Es ist ekt ' -far-big ? 

This garment will fit you — Deez'-es klide virt Ine'-en pass '-en 
It is two small — Es ist tzu kline 
It is too large — Es ist tzu gros 



462 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



How is your health? — Ve-gate' es Ene'-en 

Our prices are low — Un'-za-re pri'-sa zind bill'-ig 

What do you call that? — Ve nen'nen ze das? 

What is that in German? — Ve histe das owf doytsh? 

What does that mean? — Vas histe das? 

What is it good for? — Votso ist es goot? 

Is it good? — Ist es goot? 

Is it bad? — Ist es schlect? 

I forgot it — Ich ha 'bay es vergos'sen 

It is healthy weather — Es ist ga-zoon'des vetter 

Christmas — Vy-nacht ' en 

Christmas eve — Vynachts a-bend' 

New Year — Noiyar 

New Year's day — Noiyarstagh 

A new year — Ine noyes yar 

On the first floor — Im ayersten stock 

On the second floor — Im tsvi'ten stock 

He is my friend — Air ist mine froind 



The Earth. 



The earth — dee air 'day 
the fire — das foyer 
the water — das vasser 
the steam — dair strome 
the sea — dee say 
the weather — das vetter 
tthe wind — dair vinnd 
the rain — dair ra-'gan 
he storm — dair stoorm 
the frost — dair frost 
the winter — dair vinter 
the snow — dair shnay 



the ice — das ice 
the morning — dair morgan 
the day — dair tagh 
the midday — dair mit ' tagh 
the night — dee nacht 
the moon — dair mond 
the sun — dee sounai 
the star — dair stairn 
the year — das yahr 
the rainwater — das ro ' -gan -vasser 
the winter weather — das vinter vetter 
the summer weather — das sommer- 

vetter 



Trades. 



The merchant — dair kowf ' man 
the shop — dair lah'den 
the counting-house — das cong ' twor 
the merchandize — dee vah'ray 
the wholesale merchan t — dair 
gross 'hendler 
the retailer — dair kline' hendler 
the stock — das lah'ger 



the daybook — das joor'nal 
the ledger — das howpt'boo^ 
the cash book — das cassa'boo^ 
the invoice — de fac'toor 
the receipt — dee quit'dong 
the debtor — dair fer'koyfer 
the creditor — dair ere ' deetor 
the correspondent — dair correspon- 
dent 



. COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



463 



The Relations. 



The father — dair fah'ter 

the grandfather — dair gros-fah'ter 

the step-father — dair stelf-fah ' ter 

the fatherland — day fah'ter-land 

the mother — dee moo 'ter 

the brother — dair broo ' der 

the sister — dee shwester 

the uncle — dair onkel 

the aunt — tahn'tay 

the nephew — dair neffay 

the niece — the nichtay 

the girl — das maid'chen 



the man — dair mahn 
the young man — dair youngay mahn 
the old man — dair altay mahn 
the friend — dair friend 
the boy — dair k'nah ' boy 
the child — das kind 
the parents — dee el' tern 
the brother-in-law — dair shua'ger 
the wedding — dee hoch'zite 
the father-in-law — dair shee'gayr- 

fater 
the mother-in-law — dair shee'gayr 

mooter 



The Dress. 



The clothes — dee klider 

the coat — dair rock 

the trowsers — dee hozen 

the pocket — dee tashay 

the buttons — dee kneupfay 

the dressing-gown — dair shlafrok 

the slippers — dee pantofeln 

the drawers — dee oonterhosen 

the stockings — dee strimpfay 

the shirt — das hemd 

the braces — dee hozentrayge 

the waistcoat — dee vestay 

the boot — dair steefel 

the boot-jack— dair steefelnecAt 

the cap — dee meeutzay 

the gloves — dee handshooay 



the handkerchief — das tashentooc/z 

the watch — dee oor 

the umbrella — dair raygenshearm 

the purse — dee beursay 

the brush — dee beenrstay 

the comb — dair kam 

the apron — dee sheeurzay 

the fan — dair iec/ier 

the dress — das klide 

the petticoat — dair oonterrock 

the stays — dair schneeurlibe 

the veil — dair shlier 

the powder — dee poouder 

the soap — dee zifay 

the tooth-powder — das tzaenpoolver 



Collective Numbers. 



A pair — ine pahr 
a dozen — ine doot'-send 
a score — tsvan'tsig 
firstly — ayr ' stens 
secondly — tsvi ' tens 
thirdly — dry ' tens 
once — ine ' mal 
twice — tsvi 'mal 



three times — dry ' mal 
single — ine ' fach 
double — dop-pelt ' 
threefold — dry ' fach 
fourfold — f eer ' fach 
one sort — i ' ner-lye 
two sorts — tsvier'lye 
ten sorts — tsaner'ye 



464 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Countries and Nations. 



The country — das land 
the native land — das faterland 
the state — dair staht 
the empire — das r\che 
the kingdom — das keuni^raicA 
Europe — Oiropa 
the European — dair Oiropayer 
America — America 
the American — dair Amerikahner 
Asia — Azien 
Africa — Afrika 
the East Indies — Ostindien 
the West Indes — Vestindien 
the United States — dee Verini^-ten 

Stahten 
Brazil — Brazilien 
E ngland — England 
the Englishman — dair Englender 
Ireland — Eerland 
the Irishman — dair Eerlender 
Scotland — Shotland 
the Scotchman — dair Shottay 
F ranc e — F rankrak^ 
the Frenchman — dair Frantzosay 
Germany — Doytshland 



the German — dair Doytshay 

Holland — Holland 

the Dutchman — dair Hollender 

Austria — Aceterrai^ 

the Austrian — dair Aceterrai^er 

Prussia — Proyssen 

the Prussian — dair Proysay 

Russia — Roossland 

the Russian — dair Roossay 

Sweden — Shvayden 

the Swede — dair Shvayday 

Denmark — Danemark 

the Dane — dair Daynay 

Switzerland — die Shvyts 

the Swiss — dair Shvytser 

Italy — Italy en 

the Italian — dair Italiayner 

Spain — Spanyen 

the Spaniard — dair Spsneeare 

Greece — Gree^enland 

the Greek — dair Gree^Aay 

Turkey — dee Teeurki 

the Turk — dair Teeurkay 

the Jew — dair Yooday 

the Persian — dair Perzer 



Adverbs. 



Yes — yah 
indeed — yah vole 
truly — in dair tate 
certainly — vaar ' lich 
surely — gay-viss ' 
only — noor 
some — et ' vas 
nothing — n i chts 
much — feel 
quite — gantz ' lich 
very — zare 
so — zo 
thus — alzo 
how — vee 
no — nine 



not — nicht 

but — noor 

enough — ge-nooch ' 

scarcely — kowm 

all — gants 

almost — byn ' ahe 

here — heer 

there — da 

where — vo 

in — her-ine ' 

out — here-ows ' 

then — den or dann 

now — yetst 

soon — bald 

till— bis 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



465 



seldom — zel ' ten 
since — site 
ever — im ' mer 
never — nee 
oft— oft 

already — shcone 
to-day — hoy ' tay 



Old— alt 
young — yoong 
new — noi 
great — gross 
good — goot 
rich — riche 
cold — kalt 
warm— varm 
long — lang 
high — hoch 
full— fol 
cool — keel 
near — nah 
hard — hart 
light — lycht 
wild — villd 
fat— fett 
fine — fine 
mild — milld 
deep — teef 
fresh — frish 
ripe — rife 
bitter — bitter 
small— shmall 
wide — vide 
open — offen 
loud — lout 
right — recht 
blind — blinnd 
hot— hise 
thick — dick 
neat — net 
thin — dee ' yunn 
broad — brite 
round — roond 
sharp — sharf 



yesterday— gest ' ern 

late — spate 

why ? — wahr-om ' ? 

because — vile 

if — ven 

perhaps — feel ' lykt 



Adjectives. 



flat— flach 

low — need ' rig 

beautiful — shane 

handsome — hibsch 

ugly — hess ' lich 

bad — schlecht 

easy — leicht 

heavy — shvair 

soft— veich 

true — vaar 

short — koorts 

far — vite 

sweet — sees 

hollow — hole 

blunt — stoompf 

delicious — kenst ' lich 

disagreeable — oo ' nan-ga ' -nam 

honest — ayr ' lich 

polite — heu ' flich 

obliging — ga ' f ellig 

kind — geeutig 

prudent — kloog 

ridiculous — lek ' er-lich 

reasonable — f er-ninf ' tig 

happy — glick ' lich 

glad — fro 

satisfied — tsoo ' f reeden 

active — tai ' tig 

rude — grobe 

proud — stoltz 

strong — stark 

weak — shvach 

clever — ges-hickt ' 

mild— ga-linde ' 

sick — krahnk 

pale — blass 



466 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Healthy— ga-zoond' 
poor — arm 
empty — lair 
dirty — shmoot ' sig 
cheap— bil'lig 



Above — eeuber 
about — oom 
after — nach 
against— gay 'gen 
before — for 
of — fon 
over — eeuber 
since — site 



And — oond 
also— ouck 
even — so ' gar 
or — oder 
nor — nock 



clean — rine 
tired — meeu ' day 
angry— bay 'say 
merry— loos 'tig 



Prepositions. 

for — feeur 
from — fon 
in — in 

near — na'hay 
under — oon ' ter 
up — owf 
with — mit 



Conjunctions. 

yet — dock 
because — vile 
that— das 
therefore— da-hair ' 




468 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




A Damask Window. 



WINDOW TRIMMING. 



The merchant of to-day needs little argument to convince him that an 
attractive window display is a powerful means of increasing his trade. 
Charity knows that the way to a man's pocket is through his heart. Busi- 
ness knows that the channel to the same place is through the eye. A fail- 
ure to please means a failure to sell, while a pleased fancy redounds to the 
merchant's profit. The storekeeper, when he has handsomely dressed his 
window, has half made a sale. A trimmed window is an object lesson 
which conveys at one glance more ideas than many columns of newspaper 
description. It will sell goods not only to those who intend to buy, but also 
to those who have no mind to purchase. The individual who never reads 
an advertisement in a newspaper, will stop before an attractive window. 
Then, too, there are probably as many people who pass a given store each 
day as read any paper in a given town. An attractive window is thus 
worth a page advertisement, provided it is gotten up in a manner that will 
attract the attention of the passers-by and please them when they stop to 
look at it. The advantages to the merchant from a first-class window dis- 
play cannot be overestimated. An old retailer has said that all he asked 
was to get consumers inside his door. Give him a chance to show his goods 
and he could sell them. If he makes good use of his window, all the mod- 
ern storekeeper needs to ask is, that the people shall pass his door. The 
window will bring them in. Not at first sight, perhaps, but in good season. 

There was a time, and that not many years back, either, when a jumble 
of bright colored goods back of the plate-glass was all that was considered 
necessary for a window trim. There has come a change. There is as much 
resultant beauty in its particular line in a store window, after an hour's 
labor by the trimmer, as there is in a picture when the artist throws aside 
his brush after the last touch to the canvas. 

To place a lot of bright new goods in a given space might seem to the 
casual observer but a very light and insignificant task indeed, and one cer- 
tainly requiring no great amount of skill; but, carefully considered as a 
business work, it opens a very wide field for study and improvement. It 
requires constant practice and intelligent effort to be able to deal with the 
numerous details: the differing shapes and sizes of windows, the varying 

m 



470 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

shades of light, and the constant change of fashion in design and color, and 
numerous other links in a long chain of incidentals. 

The show window was architecturally created for the sole purpose that 
it might be appropriately trimmed, and if it be not properly arranged it is 
simply useless — a waste of space which cannot be filled or used for any 
other purpose. To the general trade a well dressed window is an adver- 
tisement and encouragement to business which should not be overlooked. 
A very considerable portion of trade done may be traced directly to its 
agency. It indicates progressive ideas, which win the masses — the crowd 
ever following where life, activity and push are prominent. The ad- 
vantages which a handsome window display gives a merchant over some- 
what slower competitors are manifold; and many thousands of dollars in 
sales are recorded annually through attention paid in this direction, which 
otherwise would not have been made. 

To clerks seeking advancement in mercantile life, no surer passport 
to success is to be found than to be able to appropriately trim windows. 
To be fully convinced of this fact, it is only necessary to consult the "want" 
columns of daily newspapers. From January to January, year in and year 
out, there constantly appears the little adlets: 



Or, 



Wanted.— A dry goods salesman and window trimmer. 
Good salary to competent man. Apply to 



Wanted.— A dry goods salesman who can trim win- 
dows. One speaking German preferred. Apply to 



Unfortunately, it has seemed to be the desire of many writers on this 
subject to impress their readers with the idea that to dress a window is a 
most complex and laborious operation, difficult to acquire, and necessitat- 
ing the possession of great artistic ability aad a creative brain. One writer 
goes so far as to assert that good window trimmers are like poets, "born, 
not made," a very ridiculous idea as well as misleading. Indeed, it is quite 
possible that this course on the part of writers has discouraged many clerks 
from making a beginning; if so, let the idea be dispelled. Any clerk who 
has wit enough to sell goods can certainly train himself to be a good win- 
dow dresser, particularly if helped along by suggestions as to the best fix- 
tures in use, and illustrated designs and examples. 

In considering the subject of window trimming the merchant, or the 
clerk who has this particular branch of the business in charge, should bear 
in mind what he hopes to accomplish by it. He aims to set forth a fair 
sample of the goods to be found within. They must be so displayed as to 
prove an attraction to the people upon the street, most of whom are intent 
(presumably) upon going somewhere else to buy. Their attention must be 
diverted from their original intention sufficient to excite in them the desire 
of possession. To do this the goods displayed must be of such a character 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



471 




Fine Linen Window. 

The sides and back are of fine linen damask, hung from a rod or 
wooden strips. The two short figures at either side are arranged in angles, 
and draped on a wooden rack three and a half feet in height. The center- 
piece is four and a half feet in height, formed of light scantling with a 
crocs-piece at the top. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 473 

as will appeal with force to the purchaser at the time he is looking at them. 
In a word, the window must be dressed with seasonable goods. 

Seasonableness, however, is not the only requisite in window dressing. It 
is, manifestly, quite unnecessary to go to much trouble to decorate a window 
with common goods which are so well known that they will attract no atten- 
tion from the passer-by. His attention must be secured first by some feature 
with which he is unfamiliar. Second, his attention having been attracted, 
his curiosity must be gratified, and he must not be allowed to go away dis- 
appointed. 

There are two classes of feminine buyers to whom the trimmed window 
appeals most strongly: The lady who has nothing to do looks round at the 
store windows through mere womanly curiosity; the lady who wants a dress 
or other article looks round for something to take her fancy; both are cer- 
tain to be attracted by goods prettily or tastily displayed; both may be 
made customers; and it may be most certainly relied upon that they will 

each tell friends at home of what they have seen striking in 's 

windows. With women the subject of dress and dress materials forms a 
never failing source of interesting converse. And as a rule they have good 
memories in all that concerns goods which they have seen and examined, 
and when in want of any article noticed under such circumstances, they are 
generally sure to return to the store where it was first exhibited. First im- 
pressions with them are everything, and when particularly agreeable 
are indelible. The same goods may afterward be seen elsewhere, but there 
•remains a feeling that they would like to go to the store where they first 
7 saw them, before purchasing. Hence, the window may be direct means of 
bringing a customer, or it may be a good advertisement. 

But there are many kinds of people with whom the merchant has to deal, 
and whose patronage is solicited. Besides those whom it is desirous simply 
to attract, there are others for whom it is necessary to show what lines of 
goods are actually carried in stock; and having regard to this class, the 
window may properly be styled an index to the house. If carefully kept, it 
should be as reliable to refer to as the index of a book. In reality, it forms a 
means of reference between customer and merchant, and every variety of 
goods handled should as far as possible be from time to time represented 
in the window. It may be truthfully asserted that the store window is of 
the first importance to the every-day success of retail establishments. 
Neglect the window for one day, and you have neglected the means of 
arresting the progress of one or more purchasers, passing your door for the 
purpose of buying what you have to sell. Lay it down as an indisputable 
rule that windows properly dressed make trade. 

Don't be discouraged if your window is small or badly constructed. 
Make the best of it, and carefully think out what kind of display will best 
suit the circumstances. You need a very small space to prove your taste 
and originality, and to make a show which people will cross the street to 
look at. After all, of course, your window, however beautifully and taste- 



474 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

fully arranged, will not please everybody. But never mind the fault-finders. 
Study to do your best, and use every opportunity you can get for observing 
the effects produced by those who are successful in this matter. 

Color. 

Imitation of nature is the perfection of art. Whether we walk in 
garden or street, in store or shop, the eye is gratified with some glimmerings 
of this noble work — color completes the whole. No class or order escapes 
the snare of fashion and custom — from grasses and lichens to the beetles 
which crawl over them; from the whale which supplies the back-bone of 
our stays to the tiny shell which serves for adornment. We take our colors 
from every source, from "coral" to the "green water of the Nile;" the 
" peacock " to the " dead leaf." Each has its own peculiar charm, and each 
in its turn commands our admiration. So, in a peep at nature we behold 
endless shades, fading or deepening into each other; the sunset, with all its 
varied hues of red and gold; flowers of delicate tints, or birds of gaudy 
plumage; the landscape, with its contrasts of blue and gold, and green and 
brown — a combination of effect from an exhaustless store — a book of refer- 
ence always open, offering continual rounds of instruction and pleasure. 
Nature is the source from which our colors are obtained, and an example 
of perfect harmony. 

Color is by far the most effective means for attractive the eye, and a 
window dressed in colors secures the attention of the passer inevitably — far 
more readily than any merely ingenious arrangement of goods or fabrics in 
which color is absent. 

Good color effects are difficult to obtain where fabrics of any great 
variety of colors are used; and window trimmers of the best taste and most 
experience strongly favor the use of but two or three colors, complemen- 
tary to each other, and as a rule grouped in large masses. A clash of colors 
affects one whose eye is at all sensitive, much like the prick of a pin, and 
this fact should be borne in mind before one essays to dress a window. It 
is better by far to discard a half-dozen colors and use but two or three, if by 
so doing the pleasing effectiveness may be enhanced. Every woman knows 
at all times, and a man knows as soon as his eyes rest upon them, that pale 
blue and rose pink blend well; that black and scarlet are strikingly effec- 
tive when seen together, and that yellow and brown may rest one beside the 
other without offense. In case the eye does not readily tell just what colors 
will bear placing together, the following rules may be given as final refer- 
ence in case of all color disputes: 

Black goes well with any bright color. 

Blue and orange increase each other's intensity reciprocally. 

Deep green and deep blue are fairly pleasing when seen together, but 
in the lighter shades the result is just short of disagreeable. 

Red and violet are not pleasant companions. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



475 




A Fancy Flannel Window. 

This design can be duplicated in any window having a substantial 
frame work at the back of it. Seven feet above the floor attach two semi- 
circles made of board to the frame of the window. Fasten the goods to 
these in pleats and drape to the bottom as shown in cut. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 477 

Orange and green clash. 
Orange and violet are void of offense. 
Tan and dark blue are very effective. 

Orange yellow deepens the hue of indigo, and has its own brightness 
intensified by the contrast. 

Yellow tending to green may be agreeably associated with violet. 
Yellow and green go well together. 

Light green and light violet are preferable, when together, to green 
and blue, though this is not saying much for either combination. 
Yellow and indigo simply melt one into the other. 
Keep red and orange apart. 
Red and green intensify each other. 

A red that inclines to purple may be placed with propriety by the side 
of a greenish yellow. 

A red that is suggestive of scarlet may be used as a pleasing contrast 
to blue. 

Divorce blue and violet forever. 

Black and white are specifics as modifiers of bright colors. 
Orange and yellow accord incomparably better than red and orange. 
Orange and violet accord passably. 
Yellow and green form an agreeable combination. 
The arrangement of yellow and blue is more agreeable than of yellow 
and green, but is less lively. 

Green and blue produce an indifferent effect, but better when the colors 
are deep. 

Green and violet, especially when light form a combination preferable 
to green and blue. 

Orange-yellow, when placed by the side of indigo, increases the inten- 
sity, and vice versa. 

Red and orange do not accord well. 

Red and yellow accord pretty well, especially if the red is purple red 
rather than scarlet, and the yellow rather greenish than orange. 

Red and blue accord passably, especially if the red inclines rather to 
scarlet than crimson. 

Tan and dark blue, black and scarlet, yellow and brown, violet with 
light rose, deep blue with golden brown, deep red with gray, maroon with 
warm-green, deep blue with pink, chocolate with pea green, maroon with 
deep blue, claret with buff, black with warm green are each effective color 
combinations. 

When two colors that do not combine well must needs come pretty 
close together, place a bit of white between them and the ill effect is neu- 
tralized. 

Every color has effect by reflection upon its neighbor. Of two colors 
placed together, one of three results must follow: both may be improved; 
one may be improved while the other is spoiled; or, both may be spoiled. 



2 



3 



4 



478 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

The last effect will readily be observed by placing together two such colors 
as 1, red and orange; 2, violet and blue; 3, red and violet; 4, green and blue: 

The red will incline to violet. 

The orange will incline to yellow. 

( The violet will incline to red. 
/ The blue will incline to green. 

The red will incline to yellow. 
The violet will incline to indigo. 

( The green will incline to yellow. 
| The blue will incline to indigo. 
Effects produced by contrasting colors must have been made familiar 
to every one by certain card advertisements printed with letters in blue or 
red, which being looked at for a length of time, upon turning the head or 
closing the eyes convey impressions of the same in other or complementary 
colors. Every color has its completing or complementary, and it is these 
which when placed together, heighten and improve each other, as red and 
green; violet and greenish yellow; blue and orange; etc. Again if a num- 
ber of pieces of woolen dress goods representing a given color (say, pale 
blue) are taken indiscriminately from the shelving and placed side by side 
upon the counter it will be found that almost every piece will bear a differ- 
ent hue. One will look green, another dull heavy blue, and another 
decidedly gray. It would be impossible to put such mixtures side by side 
in the window. No two lengths of goods should be placed together to the 
detriment of both. When a customer desires to see bright or trying colors 
they should be shown relieved by neutral or improving shades — blue, pea- 
cock, or green by cream, rose, cardinal, drab, brown, gray, or white, as oc- 
casion may require. The window trimmer must always endeavor to 
heighten and improve his colors in the same manner; he can judge the 
effect of one new shade by another as he displays them before his custom- 
ers time after time, and each may have its place in his mind's eye before 
the work of trimming-up begins. 

Black goods are affected very considerably by certain colors; some 
reds impart a green effect. Blue gives an orange gray appearance. When 
a dark navy is placed near black, the black assumes a shabby brown cast, 
and violet, green and orange also give very unsatisfactory results. 

It is well for the window artist to remember that in arranging an ex- 
hibit of silk or dress goods in delicate colors, that each color alternating 
with white is an advantage. It may be that the use of black for mourning 
prevents the use of it in numberless cases where it would produce excel- 
lent effects. Black may be combined most advantageously not only with 
sombre colors to produce the harmony of analogy, but also with light and 
brilliant colors to produce the harmony of contrast. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



479 




China Silk Window. 

The most striking feature of the above design consists in color com- 
bination. Unless great care is exercised in this direction, the result will 
fall short of expectation. But if the colors are chosen in conformity to the 
rules laid down on Pages 471-84, an excellent trim will be formed. The 
drums of the ordinary kind described and illustrated on Page 503. The 
back figures should be brought down and pinned to the back of the 
second tier. The addition of lace and gloves or even fans, will materially 
help the appearance of this window. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 481 

No combination of primary colors with black is disagreeable, but there 
exists among these a natural difference of harmony which is not shown, at 
least to nearly the same degree, in two combinations of white with the 
same colors. In fact, the brilliancy of white is so predominant that what- 
ever may be the difference in lightness or brilliancy observed between the 
various associated colors, there will always be the harmony of contrast ac- 
cording to what has been said of the influence of white in raising the tone 
and augmenting the intensity of color adjacent to it. If the binary combi- 
nations of black be examined in this point of view, it will be seen that the 
deep tones of all the color scales, and even of the blue and violet scales 
(which are not properly speaking, deep), form with it harmonies of analogy 
and not of contrast. So likewise do the unbroken tones of red, orange, 
yellow-green scales and the very light tones of the violet and blue scale. 

It may be added, according to what has been said, that the combina- 
tion of black with sombre colors, such as blue and violet, whose comple- 
mentaries, orange and greenish-yellow, are luminous, may diminish the con- 
trast of tone if the colors be juxtaposed with black, or one not far from it, 
and in this case the black loses much of its vigor. 

Blue and black, violet and black, make combinations which may be 
employed successfully when only dark colors are required. 

Light combinations, which exhibit the harmonies of contrast, appear 
in the order of beauty as follows: 

Red or rose and black; orange and black; yellow and black; lastly, 
bright green and black. As to yellow, we repeat that it must be brilliant 
and intense, inasmuch as black tends to impoverish its tone. 

Black, red, green and black is a good color combination, and is pre- 
ferable to black, red, green and black, which contains too much black. 

Black, blue, orange and black is prefered to black, blue, black, orange 
and black for a similar reason. 

The effect of black with blue and orange, is inferior to that of white. 
Black, yellow, violet and black forms a pleasing combination. 

Black, red, orange and black do very well, but as orange and red in- 
jure each other, there is an advantage in separating them by black. 

Black, red, blue, black do better than black, red, black, blue, because 
there are too many sombre shades in the latter, and because these differ 
too much from the red. The effect of black on the binary colors red and 
blue is inferior to that of white. 

Black, red, violet and black is not a good combination, as red and 
violet injure each other, and it is therefore advantageous to separate them 
by black, but the latter does not produce as good an effect as white. 

Background of Window. 

The relative merits of white and dark backgrounds are the subject of 
much dispute. The real test is : Does the drapery bring out the articles 
shown in strong relief and harmonize with them in tone? For most articles, 



482 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

colored draperies of plush are undoubtedly most effective, as they give 
greater brilliance and warmth to the window, and they are doubly ef- 
fective when nickel or brass fittings are used. On the other hand, for very 
delicate colors, such as pink, pale-blue, mauve, heliotrope, etc., white back- 
grounds are most effective ; and black or nearly black articles show to 
better advantage in white windows. In many cases mirrors form effective 
backgrounds, as they concentrate the light, sharpen the outlines of objects 
displayed, and greatly increase the apparent size of the window. The 
women are few indeed who do not look at themselves in a mirror when a 
good excuse offers. The window furnishes this excuse, and in this way 
after a woman has inspected herself, she is naturally attracted to the goods 
she would otherwise pass by. 

Dark drapery, especially of plush, forms a most desirable background, 
affording the best possible foil for articles relieved against it. A rich and de- 
sirable effect may be secured' by arranging a metal rod or curtain-pole at the 
top of the window, and suspending with rings a background of plum-colored 
or dark wine-colored drapery-silk, of the light, flowing texture now so much 
used for the purpose. These harmonize admirably with almost any bright 
color placed in front of them. But, in case very dark goods are to be dis- 
played, care should be used to place them close to articles or fabrics of a 
much lighter tone, in order to furnish the required foil. 

In regard to light, it may be said in general terms that all light must 
come from in front, and that any admission of light from the rear, or di- 
rectly behind the articles shown, completely ruins the effect of the trim by 
confusing and dimming the outlines and colors. It is important, therefore, 
epecially in an openly-dressed window, that a background shall be pro- 
vided for the double purpose of excluding light from the rear and sharply 
defining the outlines of the articles displayed ; and, moreover, such a back- 
ground, if judiciously selected, can be made to supply an important color 
element in itself. 

No light whatever should be allowed to come into the window except 
that which comes from in front ; otherwise a perfect chaos of form and 
color will result. The window display should be as jealously guarded from 
rear and side lights as from dust and dirt. One might spend days of toil 
in arranging articles with due regard to form and harmony of coloring, and 
yet have nought but failure for his pains, if there be lacking the element of 
proper light. By day, what has been said about the exclusion of light from 
the rear and allowing the full flood to come from the front, will answer 
all purposes ; but at night there is only one way to get a light that will 
do justice to an artistic arrangement of beautiful goods. It must 
come from the top and front of the window, so arranged by means of a 
polished reflector surrounding the lamps or gas jets, that the rich, warm 
glow is deflected downward and backward, taking in its embrace every 
thing included between the plate-glass and the background. No other 
arrangement of light is equally satisfactory. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



483 




Lace and Chiffon Drapery. 

The colors should be selected with regard to harmony for this design, 
and the fans and gloves should also match in shade, or at least be of pleas- 
ing contrast. The background of window is formed of light colored China 
silk. The lace is draped from swinging arms. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 485 



Arrangement. 

Simplicity in arrangement as well as in color is desirable. It is a safe 
rule not to display a great variety of articles in the same window, as a 
complicated arrangement usually appears confused. The most effective 
windows are made by the use of designs which are not intricate, and 
which are easily understood at a glance. The easiest way to dress a win- 
dow tastefully is to arrange a unit, composed of as many articles as de- 
sirable, and to repeat this unit to fill one or more tiers of the entire win- 
dow. Examples of this style are illustrated in subsequent pages. Where 
the primary purpose is to display as many goods as possible without re- 
gard to color-effect or harmonious arrangement, it is advantageous to trim 
the window close up to the front, and to fill it full enough to entirely cover 
the front space. Where color and form are considered, fewer articles may 
be used; they may be placed farther apart, and should be set back in the 
window deeper. Great height is undesirable, as it makes the display dis- 
proportionate as inspected from the vantage point in front, besides re- 
quiring a great quantity of goods. 

In trimming a window with the purpose of getting as much of a show 
as possible with a few goods, the surroundings should be carefully con- 
sidered; that is, the background, the light, and the distance from the front. 
Concerning the latter there is a good rule to the effect that a thinly dressed 
window should be arranged well back from the glass, and should be fur- 
nished with a strong background to bring it out boldly. A window dressed 
entirely to the front has no effectiveness as a whole, but depends for its 
effect entirely upon separate details, for the reason that it has not the 
requisite distance to give the eye the proper focus. But when the display is 
withdrawn two or three feet within the glass, the proper focus is obtained, 
and the eye takes in the whole design with pleasure. When the intention 
is thus to have the eye of the would-be purchaser take in the entire dis- 
play at a glance, the arrangement of the articles should begin at a point at 
least two feet removed from the front, and there should be a similar 
distance from the glass sides (if any). Nothing is lost in beauty when 
the window is filled to repletion, provided always that care is taken to give 
the impression that many displays in one harmonious whole is intended. 

It is desirable not to encumber the bottom of a show window with too 
many small objects. The bottom should serve to a considerable extent as 
a foil or background against which the articles shown may be strongly re- 
lieved and their value thus enhanced. This end is lost by crowding the 
ground; definiteness is sacrificed, and none of the articles shown are as 
effective as otherwise. The use of a background is to sharpen and 
strongly define what is placed against it. Many articles too closely 
grouped nullify this purpose. The same loss of effect ensues from allow- 
ing one object to overlap another; the outlines are confused and each arti- 
cle loses in effectiveness. Therefore, don't crowd your windows, don't 



486 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



crowd your floors; be particular to have each article clearly defined 
against the background, and don't allow one article to overlap or stand 
partially in front of another of the same tone or color. If the colors con- 
trast, the overlapping is not detrimental, because the contrast then serves 
the same purpose as a background, namely, it defines the form sharply. 



Silk Puffs and Folds. 

Several kinds of rich materials contain sufficient body to hold them in 
a given position for a considerable length of time; this is especially the 
case in regard to silks, which are raised to various figures in the following 
manner: The silk being in the bolt, one side is opened, and the first fold 
turned back. It is then moved round to face the operator, who must now 
take the second fold by the two corners, turning them in and keeping them 
firmly in hand by a pressure toward the center, so as by two or three slight 
jerks, to obtain sufficient air within to raise the figure desired. The sim- 
ple secret being that air is brought into the fold and resisted by pressure of 
the corners inside, there is sufficient strength in the fabric to maintain the 
position. The art of raising silk lies not so much in hammering away upon 
the counter, as in closing the selvages by a light jerking pressure towards 
the center, simultaneously and equally, with both hands. There should be 
sufficient bulk in the bolt of silk to resist puffing operations; if not, this 
must be made up by placing a weight on the side folded up, or it may be 
held by some one pressing on each selvage. 





FIG. I. 



FIG. 2. 



A really good plain silk has a fine effect when raised to the bold outline 
represented by Fig. 1, but with a flimsy silk this figure should not be 
attempted, as it generally caves in, and so discloses the poverty of the 
fabric. It is a plain, solid-looking puff, and to produce needs no particular 
movement beyond that already described; although many trimmers adopt 
the plan of pressing with the fingers towards the body, guiding the raising 
of the puff with the thumbs pointing upward and away. Adopting some- 
thing like Fig.2 (which is produced by raising as for Fig. 1), while blowing 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



487 



the center down, or hitting it a smart cut with the hand when the silk first 
rises, a puff is obtained suited to any quality of goods. Rich goods always 
give a bolder outline. 





fig. 3. 



FIG. 4. 



Figure 3 shows a pleat on either side, obtained by turning in the sel- 
vages and taking the crease so made in each hand, thumbs being out, and 
pointing over the fold in the piece toward each other. By raising and 
dropping the silk and drawing the thumbs together in a dexterous manner, 
a pleat may be produced, when the silk can be puffed as before. These 
three figures represent the simpler forms of draping generally in use, Fig. 
1 being especially adapted to rich plain silks, satins, or very large figured 
designs. Fig. 2 may be employed for any quality of plain material, but 
having an extra bearing in the center it is well suited to cheap, sheer goods. 
Fig. 3 is very effective for either plain or fancy goods, and particularly for 
small designs. Any of these figures look very handsome when displayed 
on the top of shelving; but to accomplish this it is necessary to pin the 
selvages inside the puff, and the exercise of care in fastening them to any 
sort of support used. For a first row in the window puffed silks may be 
placed a few inches apart to allow other figures between — say a silk opened 
toward the window in book form, the first fold being taken by the selvage at 
the centre in one hand, pressed in, and raised, while with the other a foun- 
dation or form of disposal is fashioned similar to Fig. 4. 





fig. 6. 



488 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Perhaps the prettiest as well as the showiest of this class of puffs is 
Fig. 5, which is made by taking the silk as before and pleating the top of 
the puff to show three or four creases from the center. This figure requires 
support, owing to the width of silk taken up in pleating. Therefore a thin 
pine board or stiff cardboard should be used for this purpose, being first 
cut to fit under the creases. Another showy and easily-made puff is Fig. 6, 
which when carefully placed has a very imposing effect. The silk disposed 
in this manner reflects the light from all directions, often enhancing the 
beauty of the fabric. We have here a whole or large piece of silk standing 
on end, with three folds brought out and pressed down from the end of the 
fold. Sometimes for weak silks pasteboard or cardboard is placed upright 
inside each to give strength to the figure. 





fig. 7. 



fig. 8. 



Figure 7 represents a simple folding over of two opposite corners. 
The silk being wide open on the counter, the furthest corner on the right 
hand is brought to the center of the near selvage; the top left corner treated 
similarly. The silk is then closed up and placed on end. A good bold 
figure is thus produced for either plain silk or satin. Either for interior or 
window decoration, Fig. 8 will be found "useful as well as ornamental." It 
is obtained by pleating a fold into a number of small creases, which when 
taken sufficiently far — say six creases — -should be brought up from either 
selvage and pinned, being still held down in the center. This fan-like por- 
tion may lean against a strip of cardboard. As a finish to the figure, the 
next fold may be placed as in Fig. 4, but this can only be accomplished on 
a foundation or wide folding-board. Fig. 8 perhaps more than any other 
requires careful handling, or a good silk may be so creased and drawn out 
as to necessitate re-ironing. 
«, Figure 9 represents ajvooden frame or stand upon which may be dis- 
played to advantage silks, velvets, plushes and other dress goods and trim- 
mings for counter, cornice and show window use, by which a piece of the 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



489 




Heavy Silk Drapery. 

These figures are draped from "drums" elevated by means of light 
board boxes. The lower figures are two feet in height, the upper being a 
little over three feet in height. The background should be material of a 
color that will most strongly bring the silk into relief. The floor of window 
should be of light China silk arranged in small puffs or pleats. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



491 




fig. g. 

materials mentioned can be draped and carried about without much disar- 
rangement of the goods from their original folds. 




m 



FIG. 10. 



Figure 10 represents a piece of silk when ready to be placed upon the 
stand. This arrangement is made as follows: Open one side of a piece of 
silk, take first fold and refold in original folds and place under the paper 
on opposite half of the bolt. Then count off five folds to be used in dis- 
playing, and refold remaining silk. The piece is now ready to be placed 
upon the stand. 

To produce the simple effect as shown in Fig. 11, place the silk on the 
frame and take the first and fifth folds and allow them to hang over each 
side of the bolt so as to hide the frame. Then turn in from the top and 
bottom the remaining three folds as shown in Fig. 11. To show trimmings on 



492 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




FIG. II. 



the display, place the piece of trimming under the frame from the back 
and bring the end over the top or through the folds. 




FIG. 12. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



493 



To produce Fig. 12 use the same five folds. Place the first and fifth 
folds on each side of the frame, turn the second and fourth folds from the 
top, and slightly from the bottom, and let them hang down. Then turn the 
third fold in and up over top of piece of silk. If trimming of another color 
is used, place it under the frame from the back and bring the end through 
the top fold, as shown in Figure 12. When a short length of silk is used, 
the folds may be pinned to make them secure. 




fig. 13. 



To produce Fig. 13 use five folds as before, the first and fifth on each 
side. Take the second fold by the lower end and carry (to the left) to top 
and center of the bolt. Then place finger in the center of the fold, at the 
top, and bring the fold over the finger to the center of the bolt and allow 
the end to hang over the back. The fourth fold should be draped in the 
same manner, except to the right. Then take the third fold and fold it in 
at the top and slightly at the bottom, and allow it to hang down With a 
little practice the silk (or any kind of dress goods) can be placed on the 
frame in any of the foregoing styles in a few minutes, and they are not 
easily pulled out of shape while there. 

In Fig. 14 seven folds are used. The first and seventh are allowed to 

hang on each side of, and concealing the frame. The second and sixth are 

turned in from top to bottom as in Fig-. 11. The third and fifth are folded 
31 



494 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




jfWc MWti jjjvrjiflH 



FIG. 14. 



back and allowed to hang over the top in the same manner as the second 
and fourth folds in Fig. 13. Then turn in the fourth fold as shown in 
Fig. 14. 

We have here noticed some of the various figures generally in use with 
the trade, but the window-dresser should not be confined to any one set of 
figures; his object should be to display his goods in manner and order best 
suited to the various fabrics. For instance, many of the soft twills now so 
much used can only be shown by puckering one or two folds very lightly, to 
give a graceful effect; while some large patterns or heavy watered goods 
should be opened wide and displayed as boldly as possible. Irish poplins 
and the goods they represent are generally opened to the fullest extent; two 
or three yards may be opened and brought over a stand. Sometimes the 
front row is made up by puckering a few yards over the length of the roller 
slightly raised. 

Velvets require a very different mode of treatment; and will not bear 
pulling about too much, or the folds slip at once. They form very effective 
puffs, as Figs. 1, 2, 3, 11, and 12. When well and carefully done, two or 
three figures similar to those in use for cambrics may be oif service; or when 
the corners of a fold are brought back to form a point in the center and a 
rest behind. By taking the center of the fold between the thumb and 
finger, and holding slightly inclined, .the corners will drop back to the 
position required. This figure is adopted with plain silks, which are some- 
times carried to the back of the window, back rows being held up with a 
pin and cotton. 

The following color combinations for silk displays will be found to 
blend harmoniously: 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



495 






- 



WE LEAD 

ILL CHICAGO 

ON SILKS 




A Unique Silk Window. 

The background is draped with silk hung from a rod or curtain pole. 
The two side pieces at the back are formed of high drums or columns, 
eight inches in diameter and eight feet in height. The lower figures are 
draped over drums, and the side pieces are bust forms upon which is shown 
a silk waist. The floor of window is of wide silk lace and silk pocket 
handkerchiefs. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



497 



Light Blue 


I. 

Cuir 


Violet 


Coral Pink 


Grey 


Yellow 


Cream 


Eau de Nile 


Rose 


Lilac 


Drab 
II. 


Slate 


Bright Blue 


Olive 


Cardinal 


Drab 


Violet 


Smoke Drab 


Crimson 


Brown 


Mauve 


Slate 


Green 
III. 


Fawn. 


Chaudron 


Peacock 


Olive 


Navy- 


Claret 


Dark Navy 


Dark Drab 


Dark Peacock 


Brown 


Grenat 


Prune 


Myrtle. 



These may be changed for fancy goods, or soft goods, or satins, or vel- 
vets, or the whole may be carefully mixed. White and black can be used 
to improve or divide any trying colors. No better effect can be added to a 
silk window than that produced by a piece of rich white lace, opened out 
and festooned over the successive pieces; and as a question of effect no silk 
window is complete without the addition of such things as trimmings, 
flowers, fans, muffs, sunshades, millinery, and such like fancy articles in 
season, judiciously arranged. As in a picture, various objects and figures 
are introduced to give character to the work, the whole must be uniform, 
and each color should harmonize. 



Print Puffs. 

Modes of arrangement must always vary according to the finish of 
the goods in vogue. As fashion requires a dressy or soft finish, every de- 
partment is affected; and as in silks, the old moire antique, which used to 
be opened and suspended from the top of the window, gives place to 
softer makes, which may be shown in some pretty puffing; or still softer 
twills, which can only be shown in graceful folds or puckerings. In the 
dress department winceys and camlets have no longer a place, but beige 
and fabrics of similar texture require to be dealt with. Among cottons, 
pique, marcella, lawn, and other harsh fabrics are laid aside for soft and 
delicate sateens; but here we have very little change in the mode of display; 
choice designs will bear much the same arrangement as stouter goods. The 
custom of displaying pieces of goods in piles increases every day, and a 
"stocky" window is looked upon as perfection; but over-stocked windows 
allow of very little change, consequently the effect is soon minimized, the 
object should be to introduce variety by puffing or folding. A nice display 



498 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



of cottons will generally command attention, owing to the wonderful per- 
fection which has been attained in printing; and as the majority of patterns 
are large to suit the fashion, they should be opened as much as possible. 
Soft finished cotton fabrics must be underlaid with paper in order to look 
well puffed, as Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4. Paper for puffing should correspond 
exactly to the length of fold and just a shade narrower than the goods to 
prevent showing at the edges. Manilla wrapping paper will answer every 
purpose. A good puff cannot be made with paper which has been used; 
it must be firm and perfect, as the figure will always cave in or wrinkle 
wherever the paper is weak or rumpled. It follows that the creases and 
outlines which form a figure must not be drawn with an uncertain hand» 
or be repeated with the same paper to result in uneven lines. 




FIG. I. 



Figure 1 is formed by making a pleated puff similar to Fig. 3 in silks, 
but this figure should be drawn out as much as possible, so that when 
formed a much bolder and more angular raising is obtained. 




FIG. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS 



499 



To obtain Fig. 2, the two sides are brought together (selvages being 
turned in), and the fold raised sufficiently; the center forms a hollow which 
may be brought to shape by drawing the hand down, the sides being then 
pinned together at the fold; angles above and below may be made equal. 
A very good figure is also produced by pressing the under part down to 
something like half. 




FIG. 3. 

Figure 3 is by far the most effective to be obtained in cotton goods, 
and is made by pinning the center in instead of allowing it fall as in Figure 
2. The pleats to the right and left must be carefully equalized by drawing 
the fingers up or down inside. 




V 



FIG. 4. 
Figure 4 is a simple design made with a sheet of heavy brown paper 
inserted in the fold, and raised in a similar manner to Fig. 2, the under 
part being laid flat to the piece. 



500 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




FIG. 5. 

Figure 5 will give a good idea of an arrangement which is very effect- 
ive. A dress length (12 yds) is folded to place upon a board or in front of 
a column or pillar, one fold being drawn up to the center as represented. 
It may be fastened top and bottom with pink tape. 





fig. 6. 



FIG. 7. 



Fig. 6 illustrates the manner of folding a small-pattern print or shirt- 
ing to place between puffs or on piles in the window. The arrangement is 
elaborate. It represents six folds turned in from corner to center; the 
print being folded and doubled to leave the six folds out; these are brought 
up in order, forming a kind of pyramid. A figure of this sort is only suited 
to the goods named, and great care should be observed in turning the cor- 
ners. Sateens requiring soft or light disposing may be puffed something 
like Fig. 7, which shows three folds loosely puckered up in the hands. For 
the purpose of dressing a window of opened cotton goods the choice of 
figures is considerable. Fig. 2, though too angular to be effective in the 
first row, looks well carried up to the back of the window. Ginghams or 
zephyrs may be treated in a similar manner to prints where folded. The 
best and most effective windows are those made up entirely of kindred 
material, combining judgment of design with harmonious color combina- 
tions. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



501 




A Blanket Window. 

Use a two-tier window, beginning with three half opened blankets 
draped over dummies [See Page 503] standing upon the floor. The top 
figures are also formed by draping over dummies. The blankets on either 
side are draped from swinging arms, but if these are not available, they 
can be tacked to the wall without injury to the goods. Nice clean tickets 
with the price and size of blanket, add much to the appearance of the 
window. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



503 



Di*es3 Goods Drapery. 

Generally speaking-, dress fabrics should be displayed in the window 
by draping in the form of a dress skirt. A great variety of designs may 
be utilized, as shown in the following illustrations. Dummies or drums 
should be used as much as possible, as in that way less goods are necessary 





SLAT DUMMY. 



BOX DUMMY. 





PAPER DUMMY. 



SPREADER. 



to be taken from stock for trimming up. These devices are of various forms 
and materials, ranging from long, narrow pine boxes to the elaborate roll 
of papier mache. The material of which very good ones are made is 
common heavy paste board or building paper. This should be cut in 



504 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




sheets one yard square; bend the opposite sides and make a lap of two 
inches on either edge; then fasten by tacking to a narrow strip of wood on 
the inside. This is one of the trimmer's most useful fixtures for displaying 
the various sort of dress fabrics upon. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRV GOODS. 



505 



The simplest method to drape a dummy is to select a piece of goods 
say 40 inches in width, and cover the front half of the dummy either with 
pleats or laid plain around the surface. Then take one end of the mate- 
rial, about a yard or a little over from the drum, and form an "apron" drap- 




ery at the side. The balance of the material may be used to form the 
upper drapery and a graceful puff at the top. Six yards of material is 
required to drape a dummy in this style, although two or three yards may 



506 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



easily be stuffed inside and concealed. Another method is to combine two 
different materials in thus draping the form, one color representing the 
skirt (around the body of drum) and the other color the drapery. Another 
very pretty effect is to cover the drum plainly as above described; then 
"gather" the material into pleated lengths of one yard each — with the 
pleated points hanging down in a sufficient number to cover that portion of 
the drum exposed to view Shorter pleats may be made and laid over the 
longer ones — as many rows as the trimmer desires, or the goods will make, 
thus increasing the .size of the display. 

To drape printed cotton goods, such as sateens, challies, or baptistes, 
it is best to lay them in close folds over the form or box, barely touching 




<iiJ^ 



the floor; pin only the top, letting the bottom fall gracefully. After the 
form is closely folded on the front part bring the goods to the back and 
around to the front or side of the form, leaving the full width of the goods 
hanging loosely. About nine inches from the end gather them neatly and 
tightly together, and pin these gathered knots to the top of the form 
about nine inches from front corner, and you will have completed the so- 
called overskirtor drapery. The balance of the goods leave for the bustle 
and back drapery, which are generally the most impressive and effective 
for display. Gather and fold the entire balance of the material and pin 
against the form every nine inches, allowing the goods to be fifteen inches 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



507 




A Serge and Cheviot Window. 

The tiers in this window are arranged to be about thirty inches in 
height. Substantial tiers are not absolutely necessary in duplicating this 
trim, as the foundation for the dummies to rest upon can be made by using 
two wide boards, resting on a dummy, or a box, at either end. The drap- 
ing is simple, as will be seen from the illustration. If other styles of drap- 
ery is desired, see Pages 503 to 507. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 509 

apart. The entire back of form being completed, put all the folded goods 
so arranged slightly apart, and they will form a very nice back drapery 
and bustle combined. If you desire a folded back drapery, simply let the 
goods sag loosely every twelve inches, and pin in succession, without 
gathering. In the first row place sateens, the next challies and the last 
baptistes. A very pleasing effect will also be produced by reversing every 
tier — that is, having the forms all facing to the right on the first row, the 
left on the second and again to the right on the third. As these forms taper 
in shape as well as in dressing, it is necessary to cover all the steps with 
similar goods to avoid vacant spaces and to cover the woodwork. A 
braided panel or set, a girdle here and there, attached in the proper place, 
will add considerably to the general effect. Always add price tickets, 
but not too large on such forms, as they almost invariably prove a valuable 
agent in selling the goods. 

Another splendid device for displaying dress goods upon is the arm 
rack, composed of a short upright board, from a foot to fourteen inches in 
height, nailed to a cross board of equal dimensions. This is made station- 
ary by means of tacking a slanting strip to the upright. A drapery sim- 
ilar to the figure on Page 490 can be displayed upon the arm rack. 

In large windows, especially bay windows, an attractive way to display 
dress fabrics, as well as all other goods of like character, is to get seven or 
more long, narrow boxes, say about five feet in height and from nine to 
twelve inches in width and about six in depth, and place them in an upright 
position, about three or four feet back from the window panes, and three 
feet apart, in two rows, one row behind the other, three in the first and four 
in the second, having the boxes of the first row standing in front of the 
spaces between the second row. Take the goods and drape them in long, 
graceful streamers from the top of the box to the floor, taking pains to have 
as many streamers from each box as will be necessary to conceal the same 
completely. In case the window should be a small one, have but a single 
row, and that of but two boxes, filling the spaces between with fancy fans 
or other suitable articles. 

The Tier Window. 

The simplest and most convenient method of displaying a quantity of 
fabrics in the show window, and one which can be recommended alike for 
its economy and opportunities offered the display of a large amount of 
goods, is the "tier" or "step" method. There are no lines of goods which 
can not be advantageously displayed thereon, and no other way by which 
so large a number of articles can be tastily exhibited at onetime. The steps 
may be made in a variety of ways and materials, the height and depth of 
which is necessarily regulated by the dimensions of the window. Soft pine 
boards one inch thick and twelve inches in width will be found the best 
suited for all purposes, though for some lines of merchandise brass fixtures 
greatly enhance the beauty of the display. 



510 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




FANCY GOODS EASLE. 



NOTION EASLE. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



511 




Dress Goods Drapery. 

The above design is intended for a three-tier window. The dress 
fabrics are draped over forms as illustrated on Page 503. Care should be 
exercised to prevent the exposure of pins used in fastening the cloth to the 
dummy. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



513 





COUNTER STAND. 



ROD HOOK. SWINGING ARM. 








ARM DRAPERY 



Jll.!l 



CHAIN RODS. 




m$. W 



ROD DRAPERY. 



514 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 





A Lily Window. 

During the "heated term" pocket handkerchiefs are, as a matter of 
course, somewhat more in demand than at any other season of the year. 
The styles and patterns are now more numerous than ever, and competi- 
tion is keen, especially among retailers, in the matter of meeting the de- 
mand of the public. 

A very attractive mode of dressing a window with nothing but hand- 
kerchiefs is presented in the accompanying illustration. It represents two 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 515 

lilies growing in a pond of water, the latter being simulated by means of a 
large mirror placed on the bottom of a window. The stands are constituted 
of circular blocks of wood, supporting upright sticks about three feet high. 
Place them about the pond or mirrors in groups, so as to represent nature 
as nearly as possible. The staffs orupright stems should be wound round 
and round with green calico. Now comes the draping of these stands to 
represent the lily plant. Begin at the top by folding a lady's handkerchief 
in the shape of a cornucopia. This will represent a lily; then bind it to the 
stick with gentlemen's handkerchiefs, folded in long bands or bands of 
linen. Then fold more ladies' handkerchiefs to represent the leaves. This 
will be found simple enough by following out the diagram at the top of 
the cut. The part of the hankerchief at the left corner is to be turned 
down and bound on the stick. Bind these to the stick in the same manner 
until you reach the base. Then drape more leaves over the circular block 
of wood to hide it. Place two yellow or orange-colored pompons in each 
lily. This is absolutely necessary, as it gives a most realistic effect. If 
possible, get a lily plant and study it, and then represent nature as nearly 
as possible. This is also an excellent trim to put in during Easter. In a 
large window a number of lilies may be introduced, varying in height and 
amount of foliage. 

Easter Lily Window. 

Use a white flannel or broadcloth to cover the floor of window and 
background. Right in the center place a good-sixed white or light cream 
jardiniere. Now, make a bunch of calla lilies; that is, take ten pieces of 
bamboo that are light enough to bend gracefully with the weight of the 
open lily, made of handkerchiefs. Cover the bamboo with green cambric 
of the color of a lily stem, or as near that as possible. Take eight or ten 
handkerchiefs and fold them so that by lapping them together you make 
the petal, and then use a bright, yet soft-colored-yellow silk handkerchief 
wound around a quill for the pistil. Bind the stem ends to a block, and 
then place same in the jardiniere. Tie the bunch with a ribbon, making 
the effect of lilies graceful as they spread. Have a large bow with the 
ends making streamers which will fall gracefully about the jardiniere to 
the floor. Be sure and have the stems of lilies look in proportion. 

An Easter Design. 

A novel curtain which is easily adapted to decorating an Easter win- 
dow trim is composed entirely of brightly colored egg shells. The egg 
shells are first colored, and then run on strings, the different shades forming 
any pattern desired in the curtain. After mounting, the curtain is looped 
away at each side, forming a marvelously pretty attraction. For these cur- 
tains is required a "case" of eggs, the shells of which should first be drained 
of their contents and then colored with Diamond dyes. 



516 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




A CLOCK WINDOW, 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 517 

A Clock Window. 

This suggestion is applicable to any line of goods, although the de- 
sign calls for its construction of notions. It is made by taking boards and 
cleating them together, then sawing two circles, the size you can conven- 
iently build in your window. It is only necessary to trim the face of one 
circle, as the other is at the back of the window and serves merely as a 
support, being attached to the front one by strips. This double circle is 
then supported by four uprights. The face of the clock is first covered 
with white cloth cut on the bias so as not to wrinkle. The hour numerals 
are made by wiring tooth brushes on as shown, the invisible wire passing 
through an awl hole in the board and twisted tightly on the back side. The 
hands are made with two long combs; a minute hand is made with a nail- 
brush placed on a painted dial. A border of fancy buttons on cards sur- 
rounds the dial and an edge of spools of embroidery silk or thread sur- 
rounds all. These may be strung on a stout cord until enough are had to 
surround the dial, then fasten to the edge by driving small staples over the 
thread into the edge of the circle. The supports are covered with hand- 
kerchiefs. The pendulum is a seat supported by two ribbons bearing a 
doll, and having circular sidepieces of pasteboard covered with handker- 
chiefs. An invisible wire running from the seat through a screw-eye at the 
side of the window back to the interior of the store, and pulled occasionally, 
will keep the pendulum in motion. 

Hosiery. 

Suspend a large hoop from the ceiling, over which pin a variety of 
hose, the feet meeting to the center. For the side, arrange hosiery alternat- 
ing in color. Build up tiers of steps on the floor of the window and arrange 
hosiery from boxes in stock, merely displaying half of the hose; place price 
tickets on the same. The better grade of hosiery should be displayed near 
window pane and so diminish in style and price until the top step is 
reached. 

A May -Pole Window. 

An appropriate trim for the month of May, and one which offers a fer- 
tile field for the exercise of taste and skill, is a May-pole. In the center of 
the window is erected a round pole, at least seven feet in height. Twine 
gayly-colored ribbons barber-pole fashion from top to bottom. Fasten 
eight or ten ends of No. 5 ribbon to the top of the pole and allow them to 
reach to the floor, where they should be held by doll-figures, as if engaged 
in the familiar rustic dance around the pole. As May is the month of 
flowers, these should also form a feature of the display. 

A Toboggan Slide. 

With a window sufficiently large, an effective winter display can be 
made by covering the entire back and sides of the window with sheets of 
snow white cotton. Beginning at the farthest corner, construct a tobog- 
gan slide, allowing it a slant of two or three feet. At the top place a small 

32 



518 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

dummy, dressed in proper attire, with a toboggan at his feet. The cotton 
everywhere should be sprinkled with diamond dust. 

A Ribbon Window. 

There is no line of goods carried in a dry goods stock that is more 
diversified in color, widths and general effects than are ribbons. A very 
striking window can be made by constructing of light boards a framework 
six feet square, or of any size which will best fill your window. Across 
this may be drawn ribbons of various widths and colors in such order as 
will make a solid wall of color, forming a handsome and attractive show- 
card. The loose ends may be pinned to the frame and the uncut ends so 
fixed as to stay in position and still not require cutting or separation from, 
the roll. The preparation of this window will give tasteful young sales- 
women a good opportunity to display their skill. If desired, other contrast- 
ing colored ribbons may be interlaced at right angles, or a little ingenuity 
will be rewarded by the designing of a number of beautiful geometrical 
figures. A very showy window can also be arranged by the use of different 
colored ribbons by interlacing and weaving them in such a manner as 
to produce a perfect checkerboard. 

A Button "Wheel." 

A very attractive window piece may be made by building a fiat circu- 
lar foundation of rough boards, making a disc about four or five feet in 
diameter. Cover this with black cambric. Around the outer edge drive a 
row of tacks far enough apart to allow each tack to come at the center of 
the end of a card of buttons, the cards being placed side by side. Drive 
another circle of tacks at a distance within the outside row equal to one 
inch less than the length of a card of buttons. Drive other circles the 
same distance apart until the center is reached. Between these tacks 
spring cards of buttons, the ends of the cards being slipped under the tack 
heads. These will form bulging circles of buttons, making a novel wheel. 
The use of bright metallic buttons will add very much to the appearance 
of the device, which is a successful one. 

A Button Display. 

Drape the background and side of the window with white lace curtains. 
Make a framework of light boards of an old castle, with a tower at one end, 
similar in shape to the pictures of old English castles seen in many books. 
After the frame work is made, cover it tightly with muslin, taking care to 
leave places for windows and doors at the proper places. Then take cards 
of buttons of different sizes and colors, and fasten them by pinning or tack- 
ing so as to cover the entire structure save the windows and doors. For 
windows use colored tissue paper, having previously drawn lines across 
same with ink to represent the window sashes, and fasten these securely 
from the back. The tissue paper windows can be made smoother by past- 
ing; at night place a lamp within and the effect will be striking. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS 



519 




A Ribbon Sale. 

The bottom of the window is formed of thin boards, slanting from 
against the window pane to the back of window, and elevated at the rear 
to a height of about two feet. Upon this bottom is arranged in pleasing 
color-combinations opened bolts of narrow ribbons, caught up into grace- 
ful loops and folds. The back of window is formed of short metal rods 
from one foot to two feet in length, upon which are fastened bolts of ribbon 
arranged in graceful loops, after the manner shown in illustration. 



. COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 521 

A Gingham Window. 

Across the top of the window stretch some fine spool wire or string, 
commencing at the glass, and placing the wires about six inches apart. Let 
them slant to the back. On these hang ladies' handkerchiefs. Alternate 
rows of white with rows of colored borders. As each row toward the back 
of window is slightly lower than the one in front of it, this will produce a 
charming effect and have the appearance of a prettily fringed ceiling. The 
next thing to do is to fill in the back of the window. For this purpose place 
at distances of from one to three feet apart four pieces of wood about four 
inches in width, allowing them to reach across the full width of the window. 
The second piece from the top and the bottom piece should be about a foot 
and a half nearer the front of the window than the other pieces. Then 
stretch the various colored materials across the wood and a good effect will 
be produced. This gives four inches over the flat pieces of wood to put 
show cards on. 

Pins and Needles. 

A very taking trim may be arranged by introducing into the display 
every article that is required for domestic sewing purposes. First construct 
a minature house with an ell to it from a dry goods box. Imitate the 
the shingles on the roof from packages of needles, and cover the sides of 
the house with papers of pins. The foundation on which the house rests 
build of vari-colored spool cotton — blues, reds, browns, etc. The supports 
of the steps should be composed of scissors, varying in sizes from the 
smallest to the largest. With darning needles inserted in the handles and 
papers of pins brought under from one darning needle to the other, will 
produce the steps. A rail fence is imitated by crossing packages of hair 
pins. An outside chimney to the house may also be formed from small 
packages of hair-pins. 

An Underwear and Hosiery Window. 

From front corners of the window have four arms. On same, place 
Swiss ribbed vests and drawers. Above these on either side have a semi- 
circular arm made of wire, if you so desire, and extending to back corner of 
window. Same can be kept in place by fine wire from ceiling. Have vests 
on these semi-circles. From a point half way from front to back of window, 
and to the right and left of center of window, build an arched frame, of a 
height not exceeding six feet. Cover same with fancy vests. To form an 
arch use same kind of semi-circle of wire or brass rod, covering same 
with vests. Below arch in center of window, use a three-tier stand, as in- 
dicated. Drape same with hosiery. On background use vests. The finish 
across top of background can be obtained by use of lace. Cover floor of 
window with vests, and at intervals break the monotony of same by use of 
hosiery. In front and on either side of central stand have undervest box, 
open, with undervest exposed. On background have four arms which shall 
come out toward the columns of arch; on same drape hosiery. 



522 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




SPOOL COTTON WINDOW, 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



>23 




French Flannel Window. 

To reproduce the above, necessitates having strong frame work at the 
back of window. The drapery is formed by attaching the cloth to stout 
semi-circles of wood, nailed to the window frame and drawn to a point at 
the bottom. The semi-circular board should not exceed three feet across. 
Those on the side should be of the same dimension. The cloth if tacked 
or pinned to the floor. The small pieces are draped over drums. [See 
Page 503.] 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 525 

Stocking Window. 

A very handsome window display can be effected by means of stock- 
ings only, with little or no expense. Arrange a false bottom to the window 
by the use of pine boards, letting the back be considerably higher than the 
front, so as to be in a sloping position. Cover these boards over with some 
suitable black material. Cambric will answer the purpose very well. Upon 
this arrange white or light colored stockings in such a way as to spell out 
the sentence, " Bargains in Hosiery," or such other words as you may fancy. 
Care should be taken in pinning the stockings that none of the pins show. 
By using different sizes of stockings, the wording can be arranged without 
difficulty, while the effect will be most excellent. It is advisable to use 
white or light colored stockings, for then the contrast with the black ground 
is more apparent and striking. Neckwear, suspenders, gloves and hand- 
kerchiefs can be arranged in a similar manner with equally good results. 
Another plan is to cover the false bottom of window solidly with cotton 
batting, spread out smooth and even. The letters for the sign are then 
formed by removing the cotton from the proper lines and inserting bright- 
colored stockings puffed to imitate the letters made of tin foil. 

A Parasol Window. 

Line the background and sides with yellow serge, or China silk. In the 
center of the window place a small wooden box covered with the same 
material. Upon this set a dozen parasols and sunshades, their ferules being 
inserted in holes made for that purpose at the base. This will allow the 
parasols to spread in a circular manner. On both sides place similar boxes, 
but lower, not over six inches from the floor of the window. Over each of 
these bunches of parasols (which are closed), arrange a bright colored one 
spread, handle downward, and with the top of cover coming but an inch or 
two above the handles of those inserted in the box. High above all, in the 
center hang a fully opened parasol of black silk from the ceiling, with two 
others (white) on each side. The yellow background forms a very striking 
contrast with the more sombre colors of the parasols. 

Table Oilcloths. 

Oil-cloths should always be displayed on a sample rack, and a small 
dealer with a small stock can do a large business in this way from the fact 
that every pattern represented is shown with the greatest ease. Without 
these facilities a salesman would be apt to consult his own taste and judg- 
ment as to what the customer would prefer, when if displayed on a rack 
as described, it is often the case that some pattern will be taken that had 
previously been considered dead property. It also helps the merchant to 
dispose of remnants at full price, if cleverly handled, as a customer can- 
not tell whether the sample represents five pieces or five yards. Breakage, 
which is very frequent in handling oil-cloths, is avoided, which is another 
point in favor of the rack. 



526 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

A "Color" Window. 

What is meant by this, is a display of goods composed entirely of one 
color. To produce the best effect with a window of this character the trim- 
mer should be careful not to use too many goods. The fewer and more 
tastily arranged the better. A window of 

Red Fans, 

Red Parasols, 

Red Belts, 

Red Pocketbooks, 
and a sign reading something like the following: 



ANY COLOR SO IT IS RED. 



will serve the purpose ten-fold better and quicker than the old-fashioned 
ponderous method of trying to put the whole store in the window, 

A " Canning- Apron " Window. 

The retailers all over the country are always ready to supply the 
necessary aprons and proper fabrics for gowns for the canning season. 
Many a lady who seldom finds time to enter into the hardships of house- 
keeping, just "pitches in" during the canning season. It is taking time by 
the forelock simply to suggest that in this feature there is a grand oppor- 
tunity for a realistic window display. Any retailer having a window large 
enough can have it transformed into a representative kitchen, and, by the 
aid of one or two attractive young ladies, can capture the town. 

Those who may not have a window space large enough may call at- 
tention to the time and season by the use of fruits of different kinds and 
aprons. A window display of aprons, which are proper for such a time, 
and the arrangement of fruit in baskets and about the floor will be a 
change from old ways. These breaks from the regular and beaten paths 
you have followed in window decoration will make those trims which follow 
more effective. 

Table Covers and Napkins. 

To make a display of these goods it is desirable to use table covers and 
napkins that match, or at least nearly so. In the center of the window 
place a small dinner table, and arrange the table cloth and napkins as for 
"setting" a table. Line the background of the window with rows of tapes 
about six inches apart, on which pin napkins, every other row in colors. 
This will form itself into a solid background of napkins. Tile the floor by 
the use of white napkins and Turkey red doylies alternatiag as in a 
checker-board. This will lend to the floor of the window an appearance 
of a tiled dining-room floor, thus completing the design. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



527 




Passementerie Window. 

In the back of window is a mirror. In the center is a drum covered 
with white silk; upon this is a circular board two feet in diameter; then 
another drum and a circular board, the latter being but eighteen inches in 
diameter. The sides are decorated with jet ornaments on cards and 
astrakhan dress trimminsf. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 529 

A Lace "Fountain." 

Line the sides of the window with light blue cambric, and over this 
festoon wide lace from top to bottom. Festoons of lace are draped from the 
top of the window across the entire length and brought to the center. For 
the back of window take laces and drape the entire length, hanging loosely, 
and bring them together in the center to form the shape of an hour glass 
To make the fountain: Take the center of the window and fasten to the 
floor an upright stout beam of scantling. About eight inches from the base 
of the window tie to the beam a large barrel hoop; then, with cheap cloth, 
tack to the floor, beginning from the center of the beam, and draw tightly 
to the outside of the hoop and cover with colored cambric. This will form 
the basin of the fountain. Take Hamburg edgings and form around basin 
in various shades to simulate rocks, and scatter loosely over them draper- 
es of green or colored laces. Light blue cambric may be thrown loosely 
iaround the interior of the basin to give the effect of water. Four feet from 
the floor tie a much smaller hoop to the beam and pin blue cambric to it. 
Pin wide lace around the entire hoop and allow the folds of lace to drop 
loosely into basin. To give it more effect a statue can be produced and 
placed inside center of basin, first hoop resting on the statue's head. At a 
distance of two or three feet tie two other hoops to beam still smaller than 
the first. Pin cambric around the hoops, bring together and tack to 
the beam; then, with lace form the same effect as before. Pin lace in 
straight folds around the hoop. Allow it to drape to the first hoop. To 
secure a good effect, take stout wire, bend out of the basin and run the lace 
over the wire, draping to basin. Any number of basins can be made, ac- 
cording to the height of the window. As the basins gradually ascend, the 
laces should gradually diminish in width; as, for example, the hoop near 
base should be draped with wide lace; at the extreme top of the beam put 
very narrow lace and allow it to hang loosely. 

A "Grand Ariny" Window. 

For occasions of Grand Army encampments or re-unions a window 
devoted to a representation of camp life is very appropriate. This may be 
made by sodding the floor of the window with genuine grass sod, or, in the 
absence of this, any good imitation of it will answer the purpose. A little 
back of the center erect a small V-shaped army tent. This can be made 
of unbleached muslin. At convenient points imbed four or five miniature 
trees, say six feet in height. From beneath the folds of the tent let pro- 
trude two pairs of legs encased in army boots. Stack muskets at the sides, 
and knapsacks and camp requisites in convenient places for "filling." 
Now secure three rough sticks, about five feet in length, and cross them 
(standing upright) in the front center of the window. Swing from the fork 
of these a huge coffee kettle, hung with a chain in true army style, and 
place ashes and charred sticks underneath. 



530 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




A BRIDGE WINDOW. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 531 

A Bridge Window. 

The foundations or piers of the bridge are made of rolls of cloth, but 
could also be made of boxes covered with cotton dashed with paint to imi- 
tate stone work. Across these two supports, planks are laid, and faced, as 
shown in the cut, with cards containing ties, buttons, or anything which 
comes conveniently mounted. The arches are more complicated, but a 
description of one front will serve for the whole arch. Take the front of an 
arch as it faces us. The first thing is to erect a frame, which is nothing but 
two light pieces of wood, of two or two-and-a-half inches in width, connected 
at the top by a piece of similar material the width the arch is to be made. 
Now take undershirts or any similar article and place them horizontally one 
above the other up each of the side strips of the frame. The space between 
the two strips may be filled by piling one on the other, undershirts doubled 
up with the front outward, or else slats may be tacked across the frame and 
shirts hung across these from top to bottom. It will be observed that the 
width of your arch must be the width of the shirts or whatever you intend 
to display between. Practically, then, each side of the arch is made on this 
wise: a row of shirts turned about an upright pole, to the right of which is 
a row of white or other shirts suspended upon lath or rails so as to show the 
entire front. The other upright of the frame to be treated similarly with 
the row of shirts on the left of the upright pole. This gives you two 
uprights of the frame covered, and a row of shirts on each side of the inside 
space between the arch. The space remaining between these two rows is 
to be filled up by goods folded to show their greatest bulk, or goods hung 
to overlap from slats tacked on for the purpose. Each side of the arch is 
similarly treated. Of course the rear of the bridge not being visible needs 
no decoration. The water beneath is nothing but blue cambric dashed with 
white paint and picked up in imitation of waves. The tower on the left is 
of course only a half section needing no more than to present a brave front. 
The construction of the frame is suggested by the outline. The frame is 
first covered with stout paper, and then cards of buttons, ties, etc., are 
tacked on as shown in the cut. All this means work, but of course those 
who go to the trouble of preparing the frames will find further use for them 
in future windows. 

A "Bridge" Window. 

The piers are cuffs; the floor is four five-plaited shirts, which must be 
supported by a piece of heavy pasteboard or two slats; umbrellas or canes 
can be put in the cuffs (or piers) for a finish; the suspending wires are nar- 
row black ties; the diagonal stays are narrow white ties; the cables are 
red or white silk pongee handkerchiefs slightly basted together and then 
rolled; the railing is carded cuff buttons; the shore-ends of cuff boxes. 
Some blue silk handkerchiefs underneath would make a good finish, while 
other features could be introduced as might be suggested by such goods 
are in stock. 



532 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

A Bridge Window. 

In the top of the window, take light-blue cambric or calico and form it 
into a puffy, cloudy background, which may be extended from the top down 
over the back to the bottom, if desired. The construction of the bridge is 
as follows : Take two boxes of the same height and two feet square. They 
should not be too high to prevent people from seeing the floor of the bridge 
from the outside. Cover the boxes with a foundation-cloth, to which the 
goods that are to form the piers are to be attached. Handkerchiefs can 
be pinned to the boxes, one of which forms the main foundation at each 
end. At each corner of the boxes nail an upright piece four feet long, 
these will extend two feet higher than the boxes, and will furnish the sup^ 
ports from which to run the upper cables. The floor is made by laying a 
board covered with gray cambric from one box to the other. The cables, 
one on each side, can be made of spool cotton strung on strong twine, the ends 
being tacked to the ends of the inside uprights, and the center allowed to 
sag. On each side of the bridge-floor should be stretched from one side to 
the other a lace of appropriate width to serve as railings. From the ends 
of the cables to the floor of the bridge an open-work lace should be 
stretched, to serve as braces, the picture of the bridge on Pg 504 being a guide 
to this. Underneath, for the water of the river, silks may be rumpled. If 
you have in stock, or can borrow from your neighbors, toy steamboats, 
horses and wagons, men and women, they may be so placed as to add to 
the realism of the representation. This is not a difficult design to execute 
and will attract great attention. 

A Corset Window. 

A very stocky display may be made by building in a window an arch- 
way of corsets. The frame-work is light scantling, nailed to the floor and 
ceiling about two and a half or three feet apart, running on a slight slant to 
the background. Between each scantling form an arch (of thin flexible 
lumber strips) the width of the corsets. The arrangement is merely to 
stack up boxes of corsets, one side open, in front of support, which will 
form an arch. This continued until the entire window is filled, makes a 
very imposing show. The display may be relieved by showing colored 
corsets only in the archway — the white ones forming the main body. Fill 
in the floor with corsets in boxes with the lid removed. 

Cloaks. 

To display cloaks effectively it is advisable not to show too many at 
once. A good plan is to arrange a pair of lace curtains at the back and 
sides of window; these should be draped gracefully and caught up with 
bright colored ribbon. In the center of window, display upon forms not to 
exceed three style of garments. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



533 




A Simple Suiting- Window. 

The center of above window is composed of a mirror, though this may 
be dispensed with if inconvenient or not available, and an extra center 
drum substituted. The main figure in the center is formed by nailing to- 
gether three wooden strips in the form of a triangle and draping with dress 
goods as in illustration. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 535 

A Suiting Window. 

From the back of the window, near the top, hang a half hoop — so that 
the outer edge of the semi-circle will reach within a foot of the glass, the 
ends of the hoop being attached to a piece of wood running from one side 
of the window to the other at its back. From this semi-circular hoop drape 
in graceful folds goods of rather a light shade, caught back at the 
bottom so as to leave the entire base of the window free and unobstructed. 
The goods must now be brought together at the front of the hoop. The 
back of the draped space may be hung with any kind of goods it is desired 
to show, or may be left open at the upper portion. From the outer edges 
of the hoop drape again goods of a darker color, giving the effect of a 
lambrequin over curtains. Around the base of the window and under the 
arch of the drapery may be carelessly laid small bits of goods of an attrac- 
tive appearance, such as gloves and buttons. 

A "Vase" of Dress Goods. 

A very tasteful trim may be formed of dress goods arranged to imitate a 
huge vase or goblet. The vase is formed by taking several pieces of goods 
with light designs and crumpling them loosely so as to form a billowy 
bottom. In the center is an upright scantling six feet high and nailed on 
its top with a round board three feet in diameter. To the top of this board 
is attached the ends of several pieces of dress goods of corresponding 
shades, the material being fu//ed considerably. Three feet from the bottom 
the hanging folds of goods are caught up and drawn in to the upright so as 
to form a bell-shapped cavity. The folds should be drawn down tightly, 
the fullness being forced into pleats at the base. Care must be taken not 
to allow the goods to sag too much in forming the bowl of the design. 
This, as the trimmer who has carefully followed the description will very 
readily see, forms a gigantic vase or goblet, and while it requires but 
little labor to prepare it, is very effective. Artificial flowers adorn its top. 
The back and sides of the window space may be hung with darker stuffs 
up to a height equal to that of the vase, forming a background that will 
bring the latter into stronger relief. 

To Display Dress Goods Without Forms. 

To drape dress goods in a window where there are no " forms," take a 
square board, say twenty by twenty, and nail a small strip at back for sup- 
port, allowing it to slant slightly. With a dress pattern, place a length 
over the board. Bring the rest of the goods at back. Then pleat a num- 
ber of folds, about one-quarter of a yard to each pleat, and pin at comer in 
front of board. Catch up one of the folds at the other comer of the board, 
and place the remaining goods at back, out of sight. Three dress patterns 
in front, and three at the back elevated on platform will make an imposing 
show. The sides and back of window drape with plaids and stripes. 



536 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




Glove and Fan Window. 

The entire window is hung with some handsome goods of any color or 
material preferred, and is caught back with broad bows of ribbon in the 
manner shown. The corners are decorated with half opened fans. Through 
the diamond-shaped opening a plain white background appears, upon 
which is arranged three fans in the shape of a circle, and around which 
gloves are arranged as seen in the illustration. If white fans are used, very 
light colored kid gloves should be used, and vice versa. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



537 




A Evening Dress Window. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 539 

Kid Glove Display. 

An effective display of kid gloves is made by arranging around the 
border of the window a piece of wide lace. This can be made fast by pin- 
ning to the sash. Cover the back and sides with garnet cambric or velvet. 
Then arrange the steps to run up three tiers high. From the ceiling of the 
window to the steps run black tape or braid, on which may be arranged kid 
gloves of assorted colors. Cover the steps with white tissue paper. On 
the first step lay black kid gloves in diagonal rows; second step, tans; and 
the third step, drabs; here and there place a glove-hand in position. 

Glove Arrangement. 

Rich gloves, like many other kinds of fancy articles, only require to be 
carefully hung or laid over the rods to show the particular feature; but two 
rows will always be more attractive than one, provided they are put in with 
uniformity. A very good arrangement for medium grades is to show alter- 
nately packets and single pairs. Draw down each band a little, and turn 
back the uppermost glove in the packet sufficiently to show fastenings or 
fashion; place them upon a rod to lean against the glass, and about four 
inches apart, single pairs coming between, simply laid or doubled over. A 
row behind should have the order reversed, so that packets (which may 
lean against rod or wire) come behind the single pairs. Rows of single 
pairs, arranged in order, two or three deep, will have a good effect; they 
must hang at full length. 

Where stock is the object, hang single pairs close together, turning 
the corner or half-glove back to expose buttons. Single rows will look 
well when carefully put together, but two or three rows back, rising or 
falling in height, will be attractive, allowing plenty of space between each 
row. Cutting trades, by way of change, can present low goods in novel 
array by doubling single pairs in half, and laying or building them up 
close to the glass to show rows of reversed angles. The numerous fancy 
gloves in silk and cotton are now almost always shown in boxes. 



Plush and Velvet "Drums." 

By taking a stiff pasteboard drum or roll, about four feet long and 
twelve inches in diameter, and pinning tightly and smoothly around it 
bright colored plush or velvet; and then by standing six or eight of these in 
contrasting colors toward the rear of window, with the tops inclining toward 
the back (for which purpose a flat, inclining platform, should be provided); 
then by puffing between each of the drums dress goods of harmonizing 
color so that each drum is entirely surrounded, a very pleasing effect is 
obtained. A card of bright buttons, or a strip of silver or gilt braid, if laid 
uniformly on each drum will form an effective finish to the design. 



540 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




Liiiii uiil 



III""':,;:'"!!! 



p jh 



DRESS GOODS COLUMNS. 



' COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 541 

Dress Goods Columns. 

The above design is one which can be carried out with no greater expense 
than that of a few hours' labor. The columns or pillars can be made out of 
stout strawboard or pasteboard, bent into cylindrical form and fastened, or 
they may be sewed or tied. When made, the pillars should be tightly stuffed 
with paper to give them solidity, and are then ready for use. Wind the pil- 
lars spirally with dress goods, (just as the strips wind on a barber's pole,) 
leaving some material loose at the top, which can be arranged as in the cut. 
Cover the floor of the window with similar goods, picked up (as in the cut) 
to avoid flatness. The top of the window may be curtained with lace and 
the sides dressed with pocket handkerchiefs. Good taste in the choice of 
materials, and the use of colors in combination or contrast, will make a win- 
dow dressed in this style, a great attraction. 

A Fan of Dress Goods. 

A favorite arrangement for dress goods is to arrange six colors of 
material in the shape of a huge fan, each section composed of a different 
color and material. There is no more advantageous way of showing these 
goods. The design is formed by bending in semi-circular shape a strip of 
thin, flexible lumber, to which the goods are attached at the top. At the 
bottom they are drawn in imitation of an opened fan. The sections should 
be pleated and not over a foot in width. 

A Tent Window. 

The "properties" required for this scene are a pole, a small buggy- 
wheel, a few short pieces of wood, and a well assorted lot of dry goods. 
The pole should be covered with strips of colored muslin wound round it in 
the manner of a May-pole. It should be small enough at the thin end to 
admit of its being passed through the hub of the wheel until about 
eighteen inches of it projects on the top side. On the lower part of the 
pole, nail some short pieces of wood also covered with colored material, 
upon which to hang the latest thing in hats, bonnets, lace, etc. Before 
placing the framework of the tent in position cover the bottom of the win- 
dow loosely with some green cloth, placing balls of paper or something else 
of an equally inexpensive character underneath it in order to give the undu- 
lated effect of growing grass. After fixing the pole and wheel cover them 
with some delicate shade of plain goods for the interior lining of the tent, 
and place pieces of summer dress goods of bright and striking colors on 
the outside, then drape the opening at the front, tying it back with ribbons 
and arrange the show of goods on the cross-pieces inside and on the floor 
as shown in the design. To increase the effect open out one or two parasols 
and place on the ground outside the tent, also a few fans, gloves, etc. But 
do not crowd up the show too much or the effect will be lost. Any mer- 
chant who undertakes to carry out this idea carefully will be pleased, and 
what is still more important he will please his customers. 



542 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




A CUPOLA WINDOW, 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 543 

A Cupola Window. 

The design on the opposite page represents a bell and cupola formed 
of white linen handkerchiefs. It makes a very effective show window, and 
is well adapted for the display of a large variety of goods. The bell is 
made of heavy pasteboard; the frame of light boards and heavy paste- 
board, covered with kerchiefs, buttons and notions. 

A Portiere Window. 

In the background of window drape dark colored dress goods plainly. 
Across these weave No. 9 bright colored ribbon in sqares of about a foot 
each. In front of this three curtain poles are hung about fifteen inches 
apart, and each about one foot higher than the other. The first pole should 
not be farther than fifteen inches from the glass. Another curtain pole 
is now hung across the top of the window , six inches from the glass, and 
from it a pair of lace curtains are hung and draped down close to the 
sides until it reaches the bottom of the window. Attached to the rings of 
the three center curtain poles are small notions, kerchiefs, pocketbooks. 
On the floor of the window a small pyramid of boxes is made, cbvered 
with small rugs or bright flowered stuff. On the edges of the pyramid a 
variety of articles can be displayed. By exercising care to harmonize the 
colors properly a very charming effect may be produced. 

A Pipe Organ of Ribbon. 

A beautiful window during Easter-tide is formed by imitating a pipe 
organ of ribbons. The background, side wall and surroundings for this 
display should be of white lace curtains, or other light colored material 
arranged in such manner as the fancy and good taste of the trimmer may 
suggest. The display proper consists of the reproduction of a large pipe 
organ, the size of same being 54 inches wide, 15 inches deep and 96 inches 
in height. The frame is made from two ordinary dry goods boxes cut 
down to proper dimensions, the scroll work of heavy card board, and the 
pipes of ordinary carpet or building paper. For covering frame, ribbons 
varying in width from Nos. 1 to 22 may be used. For winding pipes use 
No. 9 ribbon — and for covering bottoms of pipes use gilt paper. The keys 
may be made as follows: First, cover key-board with plain white oil-cloth 
and outline with black paint and you have your white keys. The black keys 
may be cut out of wood and painted. The stops may be made by using 
wood button moulds painted black and pearl buttons of a smaller size for 
center. Borrow or make an organ stool, and cover and drape it with rib- 
bons. If a large doll can be procured have her seated on stool in front of 
organ as if playing. Perhaps to many trimmers this display may seem 
difficult to make; is is, on the contrary, no more difficult than any good 
display of ribbons would be, while in effect it is surprisingly beautiful and 
will certainly attract more attention and draw more trade than any ordi- 
nary ribbon display. 

33 



544 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GFODS. 

An Indian Wigwam. 

The above design always proves a great attraction. The idea is to rep- 
resent an Indian camp in the woods, and is executed in the following 
manner: Construct a tent by means of a pole inserted in the hub of a 
small sized buggy-wheel. Cover the teepee with red and blue canton flan- 
nel or woolen flannel. In front leave a V-shaped entrance, such as always 
found in Indian wigwams. From the entrance let protrude about half the 
body of a full-fledged Indian. The dummy may be made by taking a linen 
duster and stuffing it with paper, with a stick inserted in the neck on the 
outer end of which wrap cotton batting. Over the face fasten an Indian 
false face. Now carefully wrap a red blanket around the dummy, leaving 
only the head exposed. This dummy should be laid at the entrance to the 
wigwam with the lower part of the body hidden from view by the folds of 
the tent, and with the head pillowed by a small log of wood. In the corner 
construct an Indian or Gypsy camp fire. Make a tripod with three rough 
sticks and suspend the kettle in the conventional fashion. Underneath the 
kettle spread some sand, ashes and firewood in a semi-careless manner. 
The floor of the window should be covered with sod if available. If not, 
rugs will answer; or, green-figured calico puffed underneath so as to resem- 
ble grass. If any Indian curiosities or relics can be secured, or a bow and 
arrow or an old gun, they will lend reality to the picture. Another addition 
is to make a wooden frame to fit the window and cover it with shirred green 
calico, and place flush with the window. It may be depended upon that 
this display will be sure to draw a crowd. 

The Fancy Dress Window. 

The present is an age of great things, big stocks and striking trims. 
The proprietor of a vast establishment fills up his massive window with 
heaps upon heaps of goods, making an immense show; owners of smaller 
stores having but limited window space, encouraged perhaps by a spirit of 
rivalry, or anxious to satisfy the growing appetite for variety, heap up 
goods to represent large stocks. There are also a few houses who appear 
to vie with each other in their efforts to jumble together goods dissimilar in 
character; but there is little or no excuse for piling together goods from all 
sorts of departments in order to make what is termed a stocky show — ■ 
white muslins in the midst of dull beiges; cambrics, calicoes, linens, or 
flannels, amongst silks &c, &c. Such mixtures represent only a hetero- 
genous mass, without point or effect. These incongruous shows are gen- 
erally the work of juniors in the trade, young men who are anxious to show 
everything at once — to squeeze a well assorted general stock into a small 
window. 

The General Window has. its place; among small traders it is essential, 
and may be made very effective by classifying the goods and maintaining 
the character of each distinct. The acme of window arrangement is the ac- 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



545 




A Suiting Window. 

Use three tiers as shown in illustration, the bottom row begining flush 
against the window pane. The effect of winding the piece of goods around 
dummy and then carelessly draping to the floor is shown in cut. It is 
simple, yet very attractive. The floor of window should be covered with a 
medium shade of goods. On each side of the window have goods hang 
down straight to the floor. The bottom, of course, should match the par- 
ticular dress patterns to which they are attached. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 547 

cumulation and appropriate disposal, i. e., that which strikes the eye as be- 
ing most natural; it will be seen at once that fancy dress stuffs, silks, man- 
tles, shawls, bonnets, ribbons, and a variety of fancy articles harmonize, as 
forming part of every-day costume; but the accumulation becomes incon- 
gruous when we introduce another class of goods, to-wit, houshold linens, 
shirting, shoes and notions. 

Window-dressing, like the fashion which it represents, is subject to 
considerable change. A few years ago it was the custom to open dress 
stuffs after the manner of silks or cottons; sometimes whole windows were 
made up of stiff set of figures from front to back, without any break or relief. 
At the present time we have quite a different and opposite arrangement, 
doubtless owing to the soft sleazy nature of the goods in vogue. Either ex- 
treme as a set practice is unnecessary, whether it is rows of stiff puffings, 
having the appearance of "wooden figures," or rows of piles, which have 
little better effect than a number of irregular steps. 

Almost all figured materials may be puffed by the aid of strong paper, or 
even without in some cases, to form very handsome figures which will give 
point or finish to the window. Whatever order is proposed, the first row 
should be allowed as much room as possible. Large windows are often 
most effective, owing to this rule being observed throughout. 

A great number of fancy materials may be shown to advantage by rais- 
ing to any of the figures already given for silks and cottons. 

Striped and fancy skirts or skirtings, as forming part of "The Dress 
Window," will be found very useful in giving variety to the whole. They 
may be treated in many different ways. A whole window is very effective 
when composed solely of tiers of skirts, each skirt showing a cylindical 
form about five-eights of a yard long. A length of striped skirting opened 
upon the counter in about yard folds, and folded over into about three or 
four pleats running the length of fold, which, being afterwards doubled in 
the center, will improve some parts of the dress window 

Handkerchiefs and Underwear. 

To make a neat handkerchief display, cover the side of window well with 
blue cambric; then pin on white and colored border, in diamond shape, so 
arranging them that every other handkerchief has a colored border; cover 
the entire wall. Now about nine inches on each side near the window pane, 
suspend tapes from ceiling to floor and pin on your handkerchief; about 
eighteen inches from each side run a tape and arrange as before. The floor 
may be displayed with boxes of handkerchiefs, the borders merely turned 
over. For the back-ground drape a pair of lace curtains; a very simple 
way to display articles is to run a piece of scantling on each side of window, 
from floor near window pane to back at ceiling, and run strips across 
merely tying to a screw-eye at proper distance apart; on this frame may 
be displayed underwear, each row a color by itself: this may be changed 
to hosiery or such articles on the light weight color. 



548 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



THE LOVER S WINDOW. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 549 

The Lovers Window. 

The above is the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, done in hand- 
kerchiefs. The framework, which is simple, is covered mostly with ladies' 
handkerchiefs, with embroidered edges. The embroidery on these is 
mostly in colors, as too much white would give the scene the appearance of 
a snow storm. The handkerchiefs which are bound around the upper 
section of the central pillar are gentlemen's silk handkerchiefs in rather 
dark colors. The handkerchiefs on the lower part of the pillar and on 
the background are ordinary gentlemen's white handkerchiefs. 

Corset Window. 

The corset window requires that the boxes should be ranged uniformly. 
Dressed in rows close to the glass, they look well ; but a more attractive 
display can be arranged by forming a center with a few pairs nicely puffed 
out with paper, and on stands, and dressing up behind with box goods. 
This window may form a triangle. An upright being fixed a distance back 
of the center, to which the rods from either side can be fastened, and boxes 
of stays built up against them. Corsets may be folded to show the fronts, 
and so placed over two rods, or in front of pillars to look very effective. 

A Lace Window. 

A good window of real white lace may be made up as follows: Hang 
festoons from the brackets, from side to side, front to back, or center to 
corners, but not too close together. Place occasionally in the center of 
festoon a nice bunch of flowers. Arrange the groundwork in rows — for ex- 
ample, sets of real lace laid upon blue paper. Each row to be raised a 
few inches right up to the back. Two or three stands may be placed in 
each row displaying collarets, a few pots containing handsome table 
flowers, and some loose bunches here and there. This simple arrange- 
ment will make a most attractive window; but the dresser must guard 
against putting in too many things here; the flowers especially, being intro- 
duced to improve the show, should only be used with that object, and not 
in profusion. The most attractive way of dressing up to the glass is to 
open a dozen yards of lace into loops over a rod to form something like a 
square, the rod being fixed about two or three inches from the glass. Com- 
mence by folding lace over to hang about twelve inches, four or more to 
form the complement, according to width. Another set of four loops 
should fall over the last, being shorter by three inches; two other rows fol- 
lowing, each shorter in like proportion. Thus each piece of lace will show 
to the window four rows, having respectively twelve, nine, six, and three 
inches. The loops must be full, and not pressed flat: in this way it will not 
be difficult to place the edge uppermost. If the squares are dressed in 
regular order across the window of nicely-assorted makes and shades, a 
very good show will be the result. 



550 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

Hosiery. 

Hose may be arranged in several different ways. Richly embroidered 
goods must hang with a good sweep to the window, but common kinds 
should be drawn up short, or the "laundry" is suggested at once. Good 
stockings will look well as follows: Place two rods one above another, dis- 
tant about eighteen inches. Fix a third four or five inches behind the top 
one, and a little lower from this last, hang the stockings, one foot to fall 
forward over the rod below, the upper foot to be turned upward over the 
rod above. Space being allowed between each pair, others may hang plain- 
ly back, the feet resting over a fourth rod fixed behind the lowest one. 
Another way would be to press them out, to show the fronts in the same 
way that half-hose are often hung by gents' hosiers. Let the first row 
hang to show about ten or twelve inches. A row directly behind these to 
hang from back to front; that is, falling from a rod placed behind to one 
fully eighteen inches lower in the front. Between these hose as they now 
hang there will be spaces of three or four inches, and to fill them let two 
other rows follow exactly in the same order, and a capital effect will be 
produced for fully fashioned or handsome embroidered goods. 

Long-ribbed hose will generally look better folded — almost to half — 
before being thrown over the rod, fold and feet showing to the window, 
But this arrangement requires to be carried back in three rows, or the effect 
is poor. 

Christmas Window Trimming. 

Although there seems to be a general impression that the Christmas 
tree is an outgrowth of a German custom, it seems to antedate the Christian 
era, and is said to have originated in the fact that a spray of the palm tree 
with twelve shoots on it was used in Egypt at the time of the winter sol- 
stice, as a symbol of the completed year. Its adaptation by the earlier cele- 
brators of Christmas may have been the simple union of two contemporary 
customs; and as a surviving remnant of the Egyptian custom, it may be 
interesting to recall that Germans frequently attach a bush to a newly com- 
pleted building. If a Christmas tree is used in the window it will be found 
best to cut off the branches on the rear side. This will permit it to be set 
further back in the window, and thus a larger tree may be used. A short 
stocky tree should be chosen of the right height to clear the ceiling. Its 
trimming is a matter of taste, but always permits a display of considerable 
merchandise. The use of decorations is recommended that are not inflam- 
mable. It is a good idea to cover the base of the window, under the tree, 
with packages of various sizes, apparently containing gifts, with names on 
them, which can be easily read from the sidewalk. The efforts some per- 
sons will make to see if their names may not be on some of the packages 
will show how curious many people are. The Christmas tree, with its happy 
suggestiveness, is a common resource of the store keeper, as well as a com- 
mon delight to the purchaser. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



551 




An Easter Handkerchief Trim. 

The crosses are made of light wooden strips. The bottom is composed 
of a piece of funnel-shaped pasteboard. The center is a round pasteboard 
"drum," ten inches in diameter and four feet in height, surmounted with a 
kerchief holder illustrated on Page 513. The main attraction in a handker- 
chief is the border and not the quality. The price of it will indicate if of 
cotton or linen. The fact that the centres of both linen and cotton hand- 
kerchiefs are white, makes it otherwise hard to tell the quality through a 
plate glass window. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 553 

Christmas Scenes. 

In the preparation of windows for this festal season, the selection of 
winter scenes is usually attended by successful displays. It is not a diffi- 
cult matter to simulate frost and snow with material at the merchant's com- 
mand. The best representation of snow is cotton wadding picked out 
according the amount it is desired to use. It can be laid flat or made into 
mounds or balls, and, when accompanied with the accessories of winter, 
counterfeits snow admirably. The effect is heightened by sprinkling "dia- 
mond dust" or "frosting" upon it. This may be obtained at any dealer in 
artist's supplies, and costs but seventy-five cents a pound. The "diamond 
dust" is finer than the "frosting." Icicles may be made by whittling out 
wood forms or cutting them from heavy cardboard, dipping them in glue 
and covering them with the diamond dust. Sheet ice is well illustrated by 
laying a large mirror down on the base of the window and making snowy 
banks around it. It will prove very effective if you place in your window 
a small tree or shrub, from which all the leaves have fallen, the branches 
of which may be covered with snow. With such wintry scenes as a back- 
ground, may be built almost any number of designs and conceptions, 
according to the material at the command of the merchant. If he has 
dummy figures or large dolls they may be made to slide down hill, skate 
upon the ice, build snow forts, cannonade each other with snow balls, and 
such other boyish sports as all have enjoyed frequently. The toboggan 
slide is a new and taking idea in window dressing. Another idea in snow 
decoration is to dress the window with seasonable goods, and string on No. 
200 white cotton thread small bits of pure white cotton batting; and fasten 
at intervals of every two square inches to the floor and ceiling. The effect 
is much like the flakes falling during a heavy snow-storm. 

An Interior Trim. 

First secure screw-eyes to the center of the store ceiling, from front to 
back. These should be at equal distances apart — say from 4 to 6 feet. 
Take cheap umbrellas, open them, and decorate the cover with tissue-paper, 
which should be crushed or made into rare-colored rolls. Then with tinsel 
fringe droop loosely from rib to rib on the inside. Now pass a strong cord 
around the ferrule, and fasten the screw-eye. From each screw-eye attach 
wire running to shelving, on which may be pinned handkerchiefs, hosiery, 
gloves, and all light-weight articles ; this will produce an arched effect 
through the center of the store. Between each of the arches, over the 
shelving, display the heavier grade of goods. A very pretty effect is to 
make a half-circle of lumber and brace to the wall, from which drape lace 
curtains or fancy portieres after the manner of a canopy; the interior filled 
in with dress patters arranged in forms, and such other articles as the dresser 
wishes to introduce. 



554 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 




A Ship Window. 

The above forms an appropriate trim for the Fourth of July or other 
holiday, as flags and emblems may be secured to all parts of the sails and 
rigging. The hull should be made of boards sufficiently wide and long to 
suit the window. No elaborate model of a ship's hull is needed, as only 
one side is shown, and therefore only one section need be constructed. As 
this is entirely covered, the drapery can be made to hide any little defects, 
or so arranged as to remedy any flatness. A very simple way to make the 
hull is to take flat boards the required length, tack some cotton loosely 
upon them, and then stuff the cotton with paper or anything easily manip- 
ulated, to produce the swelled appearance of the ship's side. After the 
frame is made the hull is to be covered with overlapping material (silk, 
cotton or cambric, as the dresser chooses) so as to show three stripes, red, 
white and blue. For the sails a frame is first made of cotton hung between 
the gaff — the short piece of wood at the top of the mainsail — and the boom 
— the longer piece of wood at the bottom of the same sail. Upon this sur- 
face are pinned handkerchiefs somewhat as shown in the cut, though the 
order may be varied according to the taste. It will be found that bordered 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



555 




A Loaded Cannon. 

The wheels of the cannon are composed of two small buggy wheels, 
wrapped with pink and white cotton bunting. The carriage is of strips of 
wood covered in like manner. The barrel is of heavy pasteboards, sewed 
together. The figures upon either side are dummies, or large dolls. The 
frame-work at the rear of window is built around a mirror, and draped as 
in the illustration with cotton bunting of a bright color. Upon the floor 
and frame is exposed all sorts and varieties of infants' wear and white 
goods. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 557 

or colored handkerchiefs can be used effectively to produce designs, but 
white or bordered produce the best effect. The foresail is treated in a 
similar manner. Of course another sail can be added if desired. The gaff, 
boom, bowsprit and mast are wound about with colored ribbons. The 
cordage is composed of narrow ribbons. Additional cordage and streamers 
can be added to suit the taste. The circle in the centre of the mainsail is 
made with fans, two or four being used with contrasting colors. The water 
can be arranged by using light blue cambric, touched here and there 
with white paint, with balls of paper underneath to give the appearance of 
waves. 

Lace Curtains. 

Sometimes a very imposing show is made entirely of curtains. The 
paper which is inserted to show up the pattern being of various colors, 
may be arranged to give good effect. Sides should be hung with a number 
of curtains falling from the ceiling, caught back at convenient height by a 
bright cord and tassel, tape, or ribbon. Each curtain so hung may stand 
out a few inches further than the one in front. Both sides of a square 
window being hung in this manner will produce a very graceful effect. A 
pillar may be hidden by hanging a curtain directly in front, caught together 
toward the bottom, having behind, to throw up the pattern, some bright 
cretonne, Turkey red, or flannel. A curtain will sometimes look well 
hanging back along the ceiling, allowed to droop in the center. The 
groundwork can be made up of rows in small piles, showing two or more 
doubled lengthwise, the same standing between. 

How to Dress A Christmas Tree. 

Select one with special reference to the space it is to occupy. One 
with branches firm and quite tall is best. The upper branches should be 
decorated before the tree is set up; tie upon the tips of the boughs with 
cotton-batting snowballs, strings of cranberries, tinsel, glittering orna- 
ments, etc. The decoration of the tree may be more or less elaborate, as 
desired. To insure a brilliant effect, it is a good plan to hang the gifts so 
that bright contrasting colors may set off the tree. Dolls, gaily painted 
toys, bright silk handkerchiefs, scarfs, etc., should be placed in prominent 
view. When the gifts are all nicely arranged, take a liberal quantity of 
frosting and packages of tinsel, and ornament as much space as possible 
and cover lightly the front and the sides of the tree with it. Then sprinkle 
the glittering frost powder upon the tree branches. Under a bright light 
the tree becomes a veritable creation of fairyland. But at this season of 
the year more than this should be attempted. A few flags, some Chinese 
lanterns and boughs of cedar, spruce or hemlock, hung and fastened 
throughout the store, will be very appropriate. Do not be afraid of having 
your store too attractive — you can not overdo it. It is a season of rejoicing 
and people will tolerate a great deal of this; in fact, you must do a consid- 



558 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

erable amount of it before it will be noticed at all. Appropriate mottoes, 
made in various ways, will be appreciated. Nice mottoes can be made 
from pasteboard letters, covered with cotton batting, over which should be 
sprinkled silver powder. Or, better still, they can be made with paste- 
board, gold or silver paper, and gummed letters. 

Mixed Windows. 

The tendency of the time is toward exclusive displays, but the heavy 
and formal outlines generally so presented would form a great argument 
against them. An immense show of silks in stacks will convey the impres- 
sion of wealth and business done. It will attract those connected with the 
trade, who, being familiar with parcels and wrappers, appreciate heavy 
piles as capital invested. But the customer, having no knowledge of par- 
cels and wrappers, may not be able to distinguish between silk and glazed 
lining. Always attracted by beauty and fashion, she is most likely to pass 
valuable piles without notice. It cannot be denied that some exclusive 
windows are made very telling, but it is when the goods are most exposed, 
and clearly indicated by arrangement and ticket. Keeping this in mind, 
the window-dresser will do well to make stock subservient to fashion, study- 
ing to arrest notice by the beauty of his window, making the solid stacks as 
pillars to throw more important work into relief. 

It follows that nearly all windows should be mixed to the extent to 
which different materials or articles will lend point or improvement. This 
has already been urged in working out the separate departments; it is an 
answer to the whole question, How shall I dress my window? But we will 
now consider mixed or general windows, so called. The first and best illus- 
tration would be found in the evening dress show. Here we find it almost 
universal to introduce materials and fancy articles from every department 
so far as consistent, and generally in the smaller houses of the trade there 
are very extensive preparations for this exhibit. Sidebrackets are hung 
with handsome shawls, cloaks, or wraps, centers festooned with white or 
pale colored lace, and center brackets decorated with ribbons and ties. 
The first row on the floor will perhaps consist of two or three lengths of 
light material opened and puckered, with trimming or lace falling grace- 
fully over them. Between each a good table plant will form the center, 
having on either side a pair of rich stockings, gloves, or length of sash rib- 
bon. Another row will show grenadines opened as before, but behind the 
fancy goods, a fan being placed between upon a stand with perhaps 
another table plant. Immediately in the rear of this row two or three cos- 
tumes will be displayed upon high stands, intermediate positions being 
occupied by whole pieces of silk standing erect, having rich lace trailing 
over them. Sprays or sets of flowers dropped in conspicuous places, or 
suspended, lace sets upon stands, dress caps and a piece or two of sash 
ribbon falling from brackets: this will represent a good window if arranged 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



559 




A Display of Blankets. 

A three-tier window is necessary for the reproduction of the above 
design. The blankets are made fast upon each side by tacking. The 
principal difficulty in arranging blankets is to make the folds lie flat and 
smooth. This can best be accomplished by pinning from the underneath. 
It will be observed that the borders form the corner of a perfect square if 
folded at the proper angle. This adds much to the neat appearance of the 
display. The two side pieces in the illustration are made by draping a 
blanket (opened half) over a dummy, and then capping with another 
having merely the first fold thrown back. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 561 

with taste and care; the articles may be varied, positions altered, and mate- 
rials, including tarlatan, tulle, muslin, stuff, or silk may be used. It is a 
Mixed Window, but only as skill is exercised in blending color and mate- 
rial will the mixing be a success. 

The Mixed Fancy Window, offering the choice of so many depart- 
ments, requires especial care; and although almost any articles contained 
in the long list of haberdashery or trimmings may be included, it is essen- 
tial that suitable divisions should come in contact. Balls of worsted, or 
tapes, would not look well mixed up with frillings or lace, but from divis- 
ions of haberdashery we may work through braids and trimmings, to rib- 
bons, lace, and flowers. Hose and gloves will not always look well follow- 
ing flowers and feathers, but linen collars and cuffs or ribbons will some- 
times offer change. Some white goods will so improve colors as to make 
the admixture occasionally desirable; festoons of lace amongst choice 
flowers, ribbons or ties; and so, while a window may be filled with every 
kind of small goods, the divisions can be so arranged as to please the eye 
and attract customers. The object is the same in all mixed windows — to 
group together the greatest variety of goods consistent with harmony; and 
as a matter of fact this is the secret of all successful window-dressing. 

Sameness is not pleasing; and so, while ignoring the strict rules and 
jealousy of departments — which would confine the goods available for 
show within narrow and unreasonable limits— and guarding against the 
inconsistency of incongruous mixtures so often found in what are called 
General Windows, we have endeavored throughout these descriptions to 
give such clear and simple suggestions as may lead to a closer study of 
this necessary art. 

How to Keep Windows from Frosting. 

One of the most reliable ways to prevent windows from frosting is to 
cut a space through the window frame at the bottom and another at the 
top of the windows that front on the street. Then close up the back of the 
window from the store proper. In this way you keep a currant of cold air 
circulating inside of the show window, making the interior of your display 
window the same temperature as the street all the time. The cold air con- 
stantly passes in and out, keeping the glass just as cold inside as it is on 
the outside. Another method frequently adopted is to run a tin or other 
metal tube about one inch in diameter set along the bottom of the pane. 
This is pierced with holes along the top and one end is extended down- 
ward and shaped like an inverted funnel. Under this a lamp or gas jet is 
kept burning, the heat from which passes along the tube and out of the 
perforations up against the window and prevents the formation of frosts. 

It is also stated this difficulty can be entirely obviated by rubbing both 
sides of the window two or three times a week with a cloth dipped in 
glycerine. 



562 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



How to Have Bright Windows. 

There is a knack even in washing windows. They should be kept 
clean and thoroughly clear for the display of goods. Choose a dull day, or 
at least, a time when the sun is not shining on the window, for then it 
causes it to be streaked, no matter how much it is rubbed. Take a painter's 
brush and dust the windows inside and out, washing all the woodwork in- 
side before touching the glass. The latter must be washed simply in warm 
water and diluted ammonia— do not use soap. Take a small cloth with a 
pointed stick to get the dust out of the corners; wipe dry with a soft piece 
of cotton cloth — do not use linen, as it makes the glass linty and dry. 
Polish with tissue paper or old newspaper. This can be done in half the 
time taken where soap is used. 

To polish plate glass windows and remove slight scratches, rub the 
surface gently, first with a clean pad of fine cotton wool and afterwards 
with a similar pad covered over with cotton velvet which has been charged 
with fine rouge. The surface will, under this treatment, acquire a polish 
of great brilliancy quite free from any scratches. 




COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



563 




A Silk and Velvet Window. 

Select shades that harmonize, as described on Page 474. The back 
ground for dark silks should be formed of light colored China silk; for light 
silks, of dark plush. The three lower puffs are draped over small wooden 
racks of the width of the silk. The three center pieces are draped over 
drums, three feet in height. [See Page ,503.] The top puffs are arranged 
upon a rack, built up from the bottom of the window. 



ADVICE TO SALESMEN. 



The future kings and princes of the Dry Goods trade must come out of 
the army of clerks and salesmen, and those who prepare and fit themselves 
to fill high positions of credit and honor to themselves and benefit to their 
employers are ones that have the best chances of attaining eminence. The 
clerk who graduates with honor from the country store is well equipped 
for the large marts of trade in any part of the world. He is possessed of a 
practical knowledge that can be turned to good account in any department 
of business, no matter where he may be placed. 

This individual, in his capacity as salesman behind the counter, has it 
in his power to create or destroy trade, and it is for that reason why every 
employer should exercise the closest scrutiny as to the character of those 
they employ, particularly as to the temperament and disposition of em- 
ployees. A man may be an early riser, attentive to business, industrious and 
sober, and yet a most undesirable salesman. One of the most important 
matters to be taken into consideration when employing a salesman, is 
whether or not he is good natured and obliging. If he lacks these two very 
essential qualifications, then he lacks the principal ingredients that go to 
make up a successful salesman. 

The disobliging, sour-faced and ill-natured clerk will wreck any business 
if he is employed long enough, and all the advertising in the world will not 
help matters. If there is one thing more than another that irritates and 
annoys, it is to be waited upon by an ill-natured clerk. One such ex- 
perience is enough for the average person, when they invariably go else- 
where for supplies. The majority of persons will never say anything or 
make any complaint, but they transfer their patronage elsewhere. 

In looking through the prosperous retail Dry Goods stores of any town 
or city, and meeting the clerks — both ladies and gentlemen — one is im- 
pressed by the manner and deportment of the polite, urbane, respectful 
gentleman or lady salesforce, many of whom have mingled in refined 
society and largely with the world. This class stand in an attitude of re- 
spectful attention when not engaged in showing or selling goods, waiting 

for you to suggest what they should show you, greeting you with a pleasant 

565 



566 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

smile, and when you did not ask to be shown any goods they would say, 
"What can I show you ?" in such a cheery, easy manner, that it at once 
seems to inspire one with confidnece. We often hear ladies remark, "I 
like to be waited on by so-and-so; they are always so pleasant, agreeable 
and polite; ready to show me anything, and do not consider it any trouble." 
On the other hand, one often hears, "I don't like to have such-and-such a 
man or woman wait on me; they have too much to say; they are sneer- 
ing; they are above their business, and too quick to give advice as to what I 
shall buy." In waiting on a customer, a clerk should make every effort to 
serve that customer properly; if any special bargains are offered, call their 
attention to the same; if there is a defect in the goods tell them of it; give 
them the information they require, but do not he too talkative; listen with 
attention to what the customer has to say, as if you were really interested 
in the purchase of the goods; when your opinion is asked give it in a frank 
and honest manner. 

Salesmen in dry goods stores have all classes of people with which to 
deal; some are cranky, some ignorant; others think they know it all, but 
in all cases a pleasing demeanor, a kindly greeting and a silent tongue will 
do more to please than anything else. Clerks must be good judges of 
human nature, must have a thorough knowledge of the goods they are 
handling. While it is well to be educated, yet politeness and uniform 
kindheartedness, with a disposition to please, always wins its way and 
holds a customer. When a customer enters a store you should never be 
talking about this picnic or that party, or how Smith or Jones danced; 
never be chattering; it is very annoying to the customer; people, when 
they are buying goods, care nothing for your personal affairs; their time is 
valuable ; they pay for your attention, and they are entitled to it. 

How to Show Goods. 

Selling goods is something like making a speech. Both depend upon 
how you begin and how you end. First impressions are always lasting. 
In your first minute with a customer you give her an impression, not of 
yourself but of the house, which is liable to determine whether she buys of 
you or not, and also whether she becomes a customer of the house or a 
talker against it. If you are indifferent she will detect it before you see 
her, and the first impression is made before you have uttered a word. At 
the outset you have to guess what grade of goods she wants, high priced 
or low priced. Guess low enough. If you do not guess low enough be 
quick to discover your error and right yourself instantly. It is imperti- 
nent to insist on showing goods not wanted; it is delicately polite to get to 
exactly what is wanted adroitly and on the slightest hint. Do not try to 
change a buyer's choice except to this extent; always use your knowledge 
of goods to her advantage if she wavers or indicates a desire for your ad- 
vice. The worst blunder you can make — the most offensive to her and in- 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



567 




Fancy Handkerchief Window. 

Place three broad strips, say four inches wide, at equal distances apart 
in front, and four of the same width back, and five back of these, providing 
there is room. Lay the handkerchiefs flat on the strips, either in quarter 
or half dozens. Each side is filled in with the goods doubled over arm- 
brackets. The ceiling should be dressed over wires or rods, as shown in 
the illustration. The floor should be dressed lightly, with full dozens, with 
here and there a few fine handkerchiefs folded in four corners and a few 
pyramids dressed similar to the posts. Particular care must be used in 
pinning the handkerchiefs to the upright posts. The least uneveness will 
spoil the entire effect. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS, 569 

jurous to the house — is to intimate in as upercilious manner that we do not 
keep as low a grade of goods as she asks for. Show goods freely to all 
customers; be painstaking to match samples; be as serviceable as you can 
be to all, whether buyers or not. In speaking of goods use correct names; 
say what they are made of, if you have occasion; if you do not know and 
cannot find out, consult the Dictionary of Dry Goods. Sell nothing 
on a misunderstanding if you know it exists; make no promises that you 
have any doubt about the fulfillment of; and having made a promise, do 
more than your own share toward its fulfillment. 

Sell Good Goods. 

In selling goods never talk price, but always quality. Quality is what 
after all, makes or loses a customer. Price has nothing to do with a custo- 
mer's palate. We are all, more or less, slaves to appetite, and know no 
other law than self gratification. The pleased palate is wedded to the 
sources of its gratification, and does not stop to compare prices. If an 
article is offered cheaper by some competitor, the pleased customer says 
it is because the service is inefficient, or that a low price on one article is 
only an excuse for an extravagant price on another, and therefore he be- 
comes the steady patron of the store where quality is the first considered, 
and where a fair price is the rule. 

The Different Classes of Customers. 

It is next to impossible to sell two customers in the same way. Each 
must be attacked differently. One is brought to the point of buying by a 
fair argument on the merits of the goods as compared with other similar 
articles ; another comes to his conclusion to buy entirely through extrane- 
ous influences, because the salesman or proprietor is a " good fellow." 
Another is like a child, needs to be told his wants. Another class are the 
suspicious ones, who see a mountain in every molehill, who can be neither 
led, coaxed or reasoned along. Again, another buys just what he needs or 
comes after — nothing more. There is still another class which every re- 
tailer long in trade will have noticed, those who know so much, or think 
they do, that rarely buy any article he recommends. Some customers pre- 
fer not to be asked to buy; they prefer to ask for what they want, and any 
urgency or diversion from what they were looking at drives them away. 

It is not best to throw out too many goods at one time to one customer, 
as it frequently confuses the eye and distracts attention. It is usually best 
to take down as requested, or to show some striking novelty at first. When 
a woman doesn't know just what she wants, it is rather a difficult thing to 
satisfy her by throwing down a large variety of goods, and not giving her 
time to consider any one particular style or coloring, 

A most frequent fault of salesmen is that they show too high priced 
goods to start with. Study your customers ; size them up, so to speak ; if 



570 COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 

you know them, consider their means and resources. Sometimes, the re- 
verse is the case; in that event correct yourself at once, and get at what is 
desired adroitly and as quickly as possible. Another thing : Salesmen 
should not call or sing out the price of every piece of dress goods as they 
take them off the shelves. Why? Because every customer has the idea 
that the piece of goods they like and really want is higher in price than 
they can afford or want to pay. A lady, looking at goods, will be certain 
to ask the price of the piece she is likely to buy just as soon as she sees it. 
Generally your price is lower than she anticipated, and the sale is easier 
made. Instances have occurred where a salesman has shown up and 
talked up a piece of black cashmere, without mentioning the price. The 
goods look so fine and attractive to the customer that they are actually 
afraid to ask the price. Not being judges of the goods they think anything 
looking as fine as these goods must be beyond what they wanted to pay. 
When the price is finally given the ladies are usually perfectly delighted 
to think the goods can be purchased so cheap. 

Another great fault of some salespeople is that they will say too quick, 
"We have not got that." If an article is sold out of stock and you know it, 
give rather an evasive answer like, "I will see; I think we have it," and 
make some effort to get something. Show that you are willing to do some- 
thing for your customer; possibly you can interest with something else. 

Good salesmanship can be acquired by keeping the eyes open, adopting 
good points from others and avoiding mistakes which you may have made 
or have seen made. 

A salesman should always fully understand and personify that one trait 
which is far-reaching and effective — good humor. Of course, occasionally 
there are very trying people to meet; do not dispute with them. Get their 
good will if you can. If a seller wants to make a success of himself, he must 
be able even to bear a slight injury or injustice from someone, who may 
take advantage of his position. There is nothing degrading in it, it belongs 
to his experience and school of life. Sometimes angry parvenu women 
(luckily their numbers are few) attack salesmen until patience ceases to be 
a virtue, and still those same customers will perhaps come around all right 
after awhile, and become the staunchest and best supporters the salesman 
possesses. Moralize on this and try it. 

How to Wait on Two Customers. 

It is always in order to impress on the first customer, if a lady, that 
you wish to show her everything, and fully satisfy her, and while you are 
doing same, the question to waiting customer, "What will you like, 
please?" will give you the chance to make No. 2 feel she has been recog- 
nized, and will receive attention soon. You must always return to No 1, 
and if anything is wanted which you have not already shown, when you go 
to shelves for that, you have a good chance also to take out the box con^ 
taining something for No. 2 to be looked over. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



571 




A Stocky Dress Goods Display. 

To duplicate this trim requires but little explanation. The most im- 
portant point lies in the selection of harmonious color combinations, rules 
for which will be found on Pages 474 to 481. 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 573 

Now, having both interested, you have a chance to settle matters with 
No. 1, and while making her check, speak a word of explanation of stock 
already shown to No. 2, and others you will show at once. Thus, it is the 
fitting-in of every move that counts. 

After No. 1 is served and waiting for change or package, always say: 
"Excuse me." This delicate touch of politeness and no show of peevish- 
ness will make your contact with 1, 2, and 3 satisfactory to all, and be fruit- 
ful of gaining time and promptly attending to all customers. It is rarely 
safe to go by a fellow-clerk to wait on No. 2, as it will have too much of 
the appearance of inattention and haste to be rid of No. 1. 

Always bear in mind No. 1 has the strongest claim to your best ser- 
vice, and you only notice No. 2 to keep her from being nervous about hav- 
ing time to get all her things. 

Rules for Handling Customers. 

First — Be ready to receive customers with a gracious, cordial and 
friendly address; not too forward, but in a quiet, easy manner cause your 
customer to feel that he has come to the right place and in the right time. 
Do not be backward in introducing business, but in carefully, delicately 
chosen words find as soon as possible, the wants, wishes or requirements of 
your customers. 

Second— Never, under any circumstances, assume to know the busi- 
ness of your customers better than they do; seek in every way to build up 
pride in your customer as well as maintaining a dignified amount of genu- 
ine pride yourself as a salesman. It matters not how well you can judge, 
you will many times be mistaken as to the final result if you place much 
reliance on the appearance of your customer. 

Third — Treat your customer with respect, in fact, honor him in every 
way possible, since he has honored you by calling. 

Fourth — Use diligence and perserverance in showing goods and their 
merits in a scientific manner; also at the same time humoring your custom- 
er until you have gained so much of his confidence that he will tell you just 
what he wishes; or he may allow, at this juncture, a selection to be made 
for him as to style, color, etc. 

Fifth — Then the crowning point is to fill the bill with a true artist's eye 
and sober, candid judgment. Fill the bill to the very letter, or to the 
very best of your ability, as to quality and price, for future sales are 
at stake. 

In conclusion — Thus with frankness, honesty and uprightness in every 
particular, with native ready wit to adapt itself to the wants of each in- 
dividual customer, the ambitious salesman will have gained lasting cus- 
tomers, well satisfied, as well as the reward of having sold far more than at 
the commencement he had anticipated. 



31 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Abb Wool 7 

Abnet 7 

Acca 7 

Adulteration of Fabrics 7 

Shoddy, Mungo and Flocks — How 
calico is "sized" — How silk is 
"loaded." 

Agra Gauze 8 

Aida Canvas.. 8 

Aigrette 8 

Alamode 9 

Alaska 6 

Albatross 9 

Albert-cloth 9 

Alexis 9 

Alizarin 9 

Where the dye is obtained. 

Alpaca 6 

Qualities and source. 

Altar-cloth 9 

Aluminum 10 

Strength and uses — Prediction. 

American cloth . 10 

Angora Wool or Mohair 10 

Where obtained — The industry in Tur- 11 
key — Annual production and price — 
American Mohair — Peculiarity of 
Luster Wool— Facts about the fiber. 

Angora-Cashmere 12 

Aniline - 12 

When and by whom invented — Per- 
manency of dye — Universality of use. 

Applique 18 

Apron 14 

Origin of word. 

Arctics 14 

Areophane 14 

Armozeen ._ 14 

Armure weave 14 

Origin of word and description of 
weave. 

Arras... 14 

Arrasene 14 

Asbestos 15 

Character of substance. 

Astrakhan 15 

Anne 15 

Origin of the measure. 

Baby caps. 15 

Where styles originate — Where man- 
ufactured—Capital invested— Styles. 

Baize 15 

Balayeuse 16 

Balbriggan 16 

Origin of the term. Meaning as ap- 
plied to knitted goods. 



Baleen 16 

Balloon-net 16 

Balmoral 16 

Band 16 

Bandana 16 

Origin of handkerchief — How dyed 

and sized. 

Bangle 17 

Bank-credit 17 

Bankrupt 17 

Bankrupt Laws 17 

Voluntary Bankruptcy — Involuntary 

Bankruptcy. 

Barcelona Silk Kerchiefs 17 

Barege 17 

How woven and folded. 

Barras 18 

Barrow-coat 18 

Barter 18 

Basket-weave 18 

Basse-lisse 18 

Bast.. 18 

Bastard-cloth 18 

Basting Machine 18 

Bathing Suits 18 

Styles and Material. 

Bating 18 

Batiste „ 19 

Batting. 19 

Baudekin 19 

Beads 19 

Use and manufacture. 

Beam-roll... 19 

Bearing-cloth 20 

Beaver 20 

Beaver-cloth 20 

Beaver Hat 20 

Beaverteen 20 

Bed-clothes 20 

Bedford Cord 20 

Bed-gown.. 20 

Bedizen 20 

Bed-linen 20 

Bed Pocket 20 

Bed Quilt 20 

Bed Tick... 20 

Beetling Machine. 21 

Beige . 21 

Beige damasse— Beige delaine. 

Bend-leather 21 

Bengaline. 21 

Bengal Stripes 21 

Berlin Wool. 21 

Berlin Gloves 21 

Bias — - 21 

Bib.... 21 



574 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



575 



Page. 

Birdseye Linen 21 

Biretz.. - gg 

Blackeize.— 22 

Blankets 22 

Eiderdown— Navajo-Manufacture. 

Blazer 24 

Bleaching --- .---- -- <S* 

Ancient methods — Chemical sub- 
stances employed— Grass bleaching 
—Modern methods. 

Block-printing --- - 25 

Blonde Lace g> 

Bloom ^ 

Production of on Velvets. 

Bloomers 25 

Blouse £> 

Boa 25 

Bobbinet --— -- 25 

When invented— Improved machinery 
—Meshes woven per minute. 

Bocasine - 27 

Booking g' 

Bolster - — £j 

Bolt - 27 

Bolting Cloth.. - - — 27 

Bombast ^ 

Bombazine f£ 

Bombyx 27 

Bombycinons £° 

Bone-lace 2° 

Bonnet 28 

Bookbinder's Cloth 29 

Bookfold — - 29 

Bookmuslin 29 

Boots and Shoes 29 

Origin of footwear— Earliest forms 
and styles— Wooden shoes— Decline of 
boots— Present manufacture— Length 
of size— Kange of widths— Turned 
shoes— Machines used for manufac- 
ture—Quantity consumed in U. S. — 
Lasts. 

Bootee - - 35 

Boot-powder - -- 3o 

Boucla fb 

Bowing — fb 

Box Coat - 36 

Box Plait 36 

Braid --- -— 3b 

Silk and mohair -Where manufac- 
tured—How numbered— Dress Braid- 
How numbered. 

Brandenburgs 37 

Breakfast ShawL. 37 

Breast Clout.. -- 37 

Breech Clout... - — »7 

Breeches 37 

Bride - - 37 

In Lace Manufacture. 

Broad Lace - 37 

Broadcloth -- 37 

Process of Manufacture — Operation 
of Felting— Fine Qualities— As ap- 
plied to Dress Fabrics. 

Brocade 39 

Fabric in the olden times. 

Brocaded.. - *0 

Brocatel fO 

Broche.. 40 

Broche Shawl 41 

Brush Hat - 41 

Buckle — — «. 

Buckram - 41 



Page. 
Buckskin 42 

Buff - - 42 

Buff Coat f2 

Buffing 42 

Bugle 42 

Bullion Fringe 44 

Bunting - -- 44 

Burlap - *2 

Burl.... - 43 

Buskin 43 

Bustle 43 

Butcher's Linen 43 

Butter Cloth 43 

Buttons 43 

When adopted— First manufactured 
in U. S.— Sizes of Buttons — Line 
Measurement— French and English 
Compared— Vegetable Ivory— Where 
obtained— How and where manufac- 
tured—Metal Buttons— Brass Buttons 
—Plated Buttons— Upholstered But- 
tons— Gross manufactured per day- 
Shoe Buttons— Amount consumed— 
Potato Buttons — Pearl Buttons— 
Where Raw Shells are obtained— Pro- 
cess of Cutting— Hand-made , stock- 
Amount manufactured in this coun- 
try—The Tariff— % Super — Super — 
Extra Super — Half Fine grades 
Agate Buttons— "F. B."— Where and 
of what manufactured— Lentille — 
Pearly Lentille — Caneles— Cuvette— 
Bourrelet. 

Caddis — - 48 

Cadet Gloves. - 48 

Calender 48 

The Process— Glazing— Watering. 

Calfskin - 49 

Calico 49 

Origin of the Word— Cost of making 
Cloth — Process of Printing— Fast 
Color Printing — Madder Colors- 
Principal Factories— Oil and Indigo 
Varieties. 

Cambrasine. 54 

Cambric - 54 

Cameline 54 

Camel's Hair 54 

Qualities of the Fiber— Price and 
where obtained— Advantages. 

Camel's Hair Shawls 55 

Camlet -- 55 

Canton Flannel 55 

Canvas 55 

Honey-Combed — Java — Penelope — 
Aida— Railroad— Congress. 

Cap 55 

Cape - j?j? 

Capote.. 55 

Cappadine - 55 

Capuchin — - 5b 

Cardigan Jacket 56 

Carding „.—-—---.---- 56 

Old methods— Hand Cards— Modern 
Machinery, 

Cardinal •» 

Carpets 57 

Origin of the Word— Where first pro- 
duced—Floor coverings anciently in 
use— First American carpet— Annual 
production in the U. S— Bigelow's 
inventions — The two general classes- 
Ingrain carpets — How to de- 



576 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



terrain© quality — Extra Super — 
Union Extra Super— Meaning of 
ingrain — Brussels or Body Brus- 
sels — How manufactured — How to 
to determine quality — Tapestry car- 
pets — Wilton carpets — Moquette car- 
pets—Imperial Brussels— Axminster — 
Aubusson — Chenille — Felt — Hemp — 
Paper — Fraternity — Dutch— Rag — 
Persian — Sprouting of carpets — How 
to cut carpets— Table for same. 

Cashmere 68 

Cashmere Chevron.. 68 

Cashmere Shawls 68 

Where fabricated — Process — The cost 
in India — Tariff — Common Cashmere 
Shawls — Sizes. 

Cassimere 70 

How woven-Compared with worsted. 

Cassinette 70 

Cassock .- 70 

Castor.. 70 

Catgut 70 

Celluloid 70 

Composition and grades. 

ChaUi 71 

Where first manufactured— Compared 
with delaine. 

Chambray 71 

Channeling Machine.. 71 

Chasuble 71 

Check 71 

Origin of the term. 

Cheese Cloth 71 

Chemise 71 

Chemisette 71 

Chenille 72 

ChenilleCloth 72 

Cheviot . 72 

How woven — Imitations. 

Cheviot Shirting 72 

Chiffon 72 

Chijimi 73 

ChinaSilk 73 

How recognized — Where produced — 
Wages in China — Power production. 

Chinchilla. 74 

Chine 74 

Chintz 74 

Chudder... 75 

Claith 76 

Clamp-dyeing . 76 

Clerk •• 76 

Clan Tartans 76 

Early Scotch patterns — Modern 

Clay Worsted — 76 

Cloaks 76 

Early shapes — Fashion in the 14th Cen- 
tury—Spanish Cloak— Modern manu- 
facture—Stitches per minute — Expert 
Seamers — Female models — European 
manufacture. 

Clock - 79 

Cloth 79 

Clothes. 79 

Clothier 79 

Cloth Measure 80 

Cloth of Gold... .— 80 

Coal Tar Colors 81 

Coat.. - 81 

Coburg 81 

Cobweb-lawn . 82 



Page. 
Cochineal 82 

The insect — When obtained — Price. 

Cocked Hat 82 

Cockle... 82 

Cocoa Fibre _ 82 

Coiffur.. 83 

Collar 83 

Collars aDd Cuffs... . 83 

Colors 83 

Hue — Chroma— Tone— Tint — Shade — 
Primary and Secondary — Affinity for 
Wool and Silk, Cotton and Linen — 
Fast and Fugitive. 

Combing Wool 85 

Comforts 85 

Range of sizes and prices — Machine 
made — Down comforts. 

Commission Merchant 86 

Composition-cloth.. 86 

Convent-cloth 86 

Cony Fur 86 

Cape 87 

Cordage and Twines 87 

Numbers and where made — Flax — 
Cotton and Paper. 

Corded Fabrics... 87 

Cordovan 88 

Corduroy 88 

Cork .__ 88 

Cork Leather 88 

Corkscrew Worsted 88 

Corset 88 

Early history — Where manufactured — 
Annual production — Stays — Hooks. 

Corset Jeans 90 

Cote de ChevaJ 90 

Cotton 90 

Origin of the name and plant— Early 
production in the U. S. — Pounds 
grown annually— Eli Whitney and the 
cotton gin— Cotton in the South- 
Picking time — Varieties of cotton in 
the U. S.— Sea Island, New Orleans 
and Upland — Classifications — Full 
grades and half grades— Average yield 
per acre— Seed cotton— Carding and 
spinning — Numbering the yarn — Cot- 
ton spindles in the U. S., by States — 
Annual crop for 60 years — Exports — 
Cotton consumption for the entire 
world — Sources of supply of Entire 
World — Sources of our supply. 

Cotton Flannel 98 

Cotton Damask 98 

Cotton Rep 98 

Cotton Wadding 98 

Cotton Velvet 98 

Cottonade 98 

Countermand 98 

Counterpane 98 

Coventry Blue 98 

Coverlet 98 

Cowl 99 

Crape.1 99 

Mourning and "hard"— Commercial 
qualities— Albert— Crinkled— Victoria 
Canton — Imperial— India — Japan — 
How woven — Methods of Japanese 
manufacture. 

Crape Cloth.. 101 

Crash 101 

The fabric 4000 years ago— The fabric 
now — Production in the U. S. — Min- 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



577 



neapoiis crash mills— Yards woven per 
day — How branded. 

Cravat 102 

Cravenette 102 

Crazy-quilt 102 

Crepe de chine 102 

Crepe-Lisse 102 

Crepon 102 

Cretonne 103 

Crewel 103 

Cricket Flannel... 103 

Crinoline 103 

Crofting 103 

Crown Lining 103 

Curtains 103 

Cut Cashmere 104 

Damask 104 

Table and curtain-How woven — Where 
manufactured — Double and single. 

Damasked 105 

Damas8e 105 

Damassin 105 

Darning Needles 105 

DeBeige 105 

Delaine 105 

Demi-Castor 106 

Denim 106 

Designing 106 

How patterns are drawn — Jealousy 
among mill owners — French design- 
ing — Schools of design. 

Diagonal 108 

Diaper. 108 

Diced. 107 

Dickey 108 

Dimity 108 

Discharging 109 

Discount . . _. 109 

Distaff 109 

Ditto 109 

Dobby-Machine 110 

Doeskin 110 

Dog Cheap 110 

Dogskin... 110 

DoUy Varden.... 110 

Dolman.. 110 

Domet 110 

Donsky 110 

Dornick 110 

Double-dyeing 111 

Double-faced 111 

Doublet Ill 

Dowlas 111 

Down 111 

Doyley Ill 

Drap de Alma 111 

Drap deTe__ „ 112 

Draper 112 

Drapery „ 112 

Drap Sansdier 112 

Drawing-frame 112 

Drawn-work ... 112 

Dress 112 

Styles among various nations — Object 
of dress — General effect — Artistic 
rules — How to select dress fabrics. 

Drilling... 115 

Drugget.. 115 

Drummer 115 

Dry Goods.. 115 

Origin of the term— Money invested 
in the U. S.— Importations and ex- 



portations— Factories— Magnitude of 
the business— The Bon Marche. 

Duck 118 

Due-bill _ 118 

Dundee Goods 118 

Dupion 118 

Dyeing 118 

Origin of dye stuff — Processes— Pig- 
ments — Ancient methods — Modern — 
Establishments — Artificial coloring 
matters — Chemicals — Aniline — Aliza- 
rin — Madder — Logwood — Indigo — 
Mordant — Turkey Red — Cochineal — 
Purple. 

Ecru _ 120 

Edging 120 

Egyptian Cotton 120 

Eider-down 120 

Eider-down Cloth 120 

Elastic Web 121 

Electoral Cloth or Biretz 121 

Ell 121 

Embossed Velvet 122 

Embossed Felt 122 

Embroidery 122 

Origin of the art — The industry in 
Switzerland — Annual value of pro- 
duction — Exportations to the U. S. — 
60 per cent tariff-Stitch basis-Peasant 
labor — Beautiful handwork— Ameri- 
can embroideries— Machine made — 
Schiffli goods — Prediction. 

Embroidery Silk 125 

Empress Cloth 125 

Empress Gauze 125 

Epingle... 125 

Equestrian Tights 125 

Ermine... 125 

Estamene 126 

Etamin 126 

Etamine „ 126 

Everlasting... 126 

Fabric 126 

Factory 126 

Number in the U. S. — Capital invested 
— Southern industry — Cheap motive 
power — Silk, Cotton and Woolen 
Mills — Where located. 

Factory Cotton 128 

Factory Yarn 128 

Fagoting 128 

Faille... 128 

False Hair 128 

Fans 129 

Farmer's Satin 130 

Fashion 130 

Fayetta 131 

Featherbone 131 

leather Cloth 131 

Feathers 132 

Feather-stitch 133 

Felt 133 

How cloth is felted — Origin of the art 
-Peculiarities of wool fibers — The 
only fiber possible to felt — Mystery of 
the operation. 

Fiber 136 

The difference between fibers — The 60 
varieties — Characteristics— Tests. 

Fiberlia 139 

Fichu 140 

Filament 140 

Filature 140 



578 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Filibeg.. - 140 

Filoselle 140 

Filling 140 

Fish Hooks 140 

. 141 

^fhe three varieties — Bunting — Object 
of emblems — Clamp-dyed — Printed. 

Flannel 143 

Class of wool used — Bleached — var- 

Flannellette... — - 143 

Flat goods. * 144 

Flax 144 

Cultivation of the plant — Ancient use 
— The Irish industry — Modern pro- 
cess of preparing linen yarn — Water 
retting — Heckling — Roving — Spin- 
ning — Numbering the yarn — Com- 
mercial qualities. Prod'ct'nin Europe 
and U. S.-The finest grade-Bleaching. 

Fleece... 149 

Fleur delis 149 

Floret-silk. 149 

Floretta 149 

Floss-silk 149 

Fold 149 

Fondu 150 

Foolscap 150 

Foot 150 

Foot-glove 150 

Foot-sheet 150 

Forwarder 150 

Foulard, Fourlardine 150 

Four-in-hand 151 

French Cambric 151 

French Merino. 151 

French Quilting 151 

French Twill 151 

Frieze 151 

The Irish fabric — How manufactured. 

Fringe 152 

Frock 152 

Frock Coat 152 

Frocking T52 

Frog 152 

Fugitive colors 153 

Fuller's earth 153 

Falling 153 

How cloths are shrunk — Scouring 
stocks — Time required. 

Fulling Mills 154 

Full Regular 154 

Fur 154 

Badger — Bear — Beaver — Chinchilla — 
Ermine— Fisher— Catskin— Silver Fox 
— Martin Buffalo robes— Lynx — Mink 
— Muskrat— Musqua— Nutria— Oppos- 
som — Otter — Sea-Otter — Rabbit — 
Hare and Coney — Sable — Sealskin — 
Skunk- Wolf- How dyed, put and sewed 
— Price and characteristics of each. 

Fur-beaver 158 

Furbelow 158 

Fustian 158 

Fuzz 159 

Gaiter 159 

Galligaskins 159 

Galloon 159 

Galoshes 159 

Gambroon . 159 

Garment 159 

Garter 159 

Gauntlet - 160 



Page. 

Gassing 160 

Gassing-frame. 160 

Gauze 160 

Genappe 161 

Germantown Yarn 161 

German Knitting Yarn 161 

Gimp 161 

Gingham 161 

How woven — Pattern production — 
Designation of checks— Zephyr— Seer- 
sucker — Madras — Scotch — French — 
Toile-du- nord. 

Girdle 162 

Glace 163 

Glass-cloth 163 

Glassing 163 

Glazing 163 

Glengarry Cap 163 

Gloria 164 

Gloves.. 164 

Antiquity — History — French manu- 
facture—Kids required — Method of 
making — Removing the hair— Tan- 
ning the skin— Hand and machine 
sewing — Sizes — Lengths — Glace — 
Seude — Undressed — Raising the Kids 
—The kinds of leather that cheap 
gioves are made of — Fabric gloves 
Where made — Town made and frame 
made— Heavy gloves— Buckskin— Sar- 
unac — Nappa— Castor — Mocha — Dog- 
skin etc. 

Gobelin dress fabric 169 

Gossamer 169 

Gown 170 

Grain 170 

Grain Leather 170 

Grass-bleaching 170 

Grass-cloth - ...170 

Grass-embroidery 170 

Grass-linen 170 

Grenadine 170 

Grille 170 

Grogram 170 

Gros 170 

Gros des Indus 171 

Grosdes Naples 171 

Gros des Tours 171 

Gros grain 171 

Guernsey -- 171 

Guipure 171 

Gunny 171 

Gutta-Percha 172 

Gypsy Cloth.. 172 

Haberdasher 172 

Habiliment 173 

Habit - 173 

Hair Cloth 173 

Hair Manufacture... 173 

Hair Pin 175 

Hammer Cloth 175 

Hammock 175 

Handkerchief 175 

Origin and early use — French ladies — 
Staples — Finish — Union goods- 
Printed— Sizes— Silk and Embroider- 
ied goods. 

Hank... 177 

Haslock 177 

Hassock 177 

Hat-block 177 

Hat-body 177 

Hatsand Caps — 177 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



579 



First introduction— Old Saint Clem- 
ent—Early styles— What felt hats are 
made of — Hand and. machine meth- 
ods — How hats are made by machin- 
ery — Stiff hats — Fur hats — Wool 
hats — Silk hats — Caps — Where and how 
made— Cloth and. fur— Straw hats— 
Where straw is obtained — Mackinaw — 
Panama — Manilla — Palm Leaf — The 
secret of numbering hats — What con- 
stitutes a "size". 

Hatching — 189 

Haute-lisse 189 

Havelock 189 

Haversack 189 

Heckle __■ 190 

Helix 190 

Hemp 190 

Hemstitch 191 

Henrietta 191 

Herringbone 191 

Hickory Check 191 

Hindoo Silk 191 

Holland 192 

Glazed — Opaque — Brown. 

Home Weaving 192 

Honey comb 193 

Hood... 193 

HookaDd eye 194 

Hoopskirt 194 

Hose - 194 

The difference between hose and 
stockings— Full regular— Full fash- 
ioned—Seamless—Common cut — Bal- 
briggan —Lisle Thread — British- 
Silk— A "size" in hosiery. 

Hosier 196 

Hosiery and Knit Goods 196 

Methods of knitting by machinery— 
When and where invented — The rom- 
ance of William Lee— Modern knit- 
ting machinery — Where our hosiery 
comes from. 

Housewife's Cloth — 199 

Huckaback 199 

Illusion lf9 

Imports ^t--o" 

Money annually collected by the U. b. 
on imports. [See Silk.] 

India Linon. 200 

India Rubber 200 

Where obtained — How manufactured 
— Price — Factories — Composition. 

India Shawls 202 

India Silks 203 

Indigo 203 

Indigo Blue Calico - 204 

Methods of dyeing and production of 
figures— Why the white figures rotten. 

Ingrain 205 

Inventory 205 

Invoice 205 

Italian Cloth 205 

Ivory Nut 206 

Jacket 206 

Jack Towel... 206 

Jaconet 206 

Jacquard 206 

Jos. M. Jacquard, inventor of the 
famous loom. 

Janus Cloth - 208 

Japanese Printing 208 

Japanning 209 



Page. 

Jean .. - 210 

Jersey... 210 

Jobber 210 

Jumper 210 

Jute 210 

The cultivation of the fiber— Amount 
raised— Uses— Adulterating silk. 

Kamptulicon 212 

Kangaroo Leather 21 

Kerchief 212 

Kersey 212 

Kersey«iere 213 

Kid Gloves 213 

How to select. [See Gloves.] 

Kilt - - 214 

Kilting Machine -- 214 

Kip... 214 

Kneipp Linen -- 214 

Knickerbocker ,-- 214 

Knitting 215 

Knitting Cotton 215 

Knitting-needle 215 

KnittingSilk 216 

Knotting 216 

Labels 216 

Laine Elastic 216 

Lace 216 

Where first made — Point lace and pil- 
low lace — Italian lace makers — Five 
different styles — Lace treasures — The 
most celebrated laces — 35 handsome 
varieties — Descriptions of each — Ma- 
chine lace— How made— An inventor's 
misfortune — Minute discription of the 
32 varieties of machine-made lace. 

Lace Curtains. .- 228 

How and where made — How to esti- 
mate the value— Nottingham. 

Ladies' Cloth 229 

Lambrequin 230 

Lamb's Wool 230 

Lappet-weaving 230 

Lariat — - 230 

Lasting 230 

Laventine 230 

Lawn 230 

Cobweb — Cypress —Victoria — Thread- 
Linen— Origin of name — Bleaching. 

Leather 231 

How the many varieties of leather are 
tanned— Oak, Hemlock, and Sumac 
tanning — French calfskin — Morocco 
Where the hides are obtained — Taw- 
ing — Dongola — Tampico — French Kid 
—Pebble Goat — Straight Grain — 
Skivers— Oil leather — Alligator— Kan- 
garoo— Patent — Russia, etc. 

Leno 239 

Line - 239 

Linen . 239 

Origin of the manufacture— Great 
antiquity — The industry in Europe— 
In the U. S,— The culture of flax in 
Ireland — Weaving and bleaching at 
Belfast — Test for linen fabrics — 
Strength of the fiber— Superiority. 

Linen Diaper 243 

Lingerie 243 

Linoleum 243 

Linon - 244 

Linsey-Woolsey 244 

Lisle Thread 244 

t 



580 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Page. 
How spun— Its superiority. 

Lisse 244 

List 244 

Livery 245 

Llama 245 

Lockram 245 

Logwood.. 245 

Loom 245 

Invention of the power loom — Frame 
— Yarn beam — Cloth beam — Heddles — 
Reed — Batten — Illustrations (373 to 
388) — Jacquard attachment. 

Looped Cord Fabric... 248 

Louisine 248 

Lustering 248 

Lustrene 249 

Lustring 249 

Mackintosh 249 

Macrame 250 

Madapollam 250 

Madder.. 250 

Turkey Red — Alizari — Madder Red. 

Madras 250 

Mail Cloth. 251 

Manila 251 

Manteau 251 

Mantilla. 251 

Mantle 251 

Mantua-maker 251 

Manufacture 252 

Marbled 252 

Marceline 252 

Marking-cotton 252 

Marseilles 252 

Marsella 252 

Marvelieux... _ 252 

Matelasse 252 

Matting __ 252 

Cocoa mat — Russia — Napier — China 
and Japan — Manufacture in China — 
Growing the plant — Weaving — Ship- 
ment—Danger from pirates. 

Mauve 255 

Measures 255 

Yard— Foot — Inch — Aune — Mile — 
Pace— Fathom— Span — Hand — Ell — 
Meter — Cloth measure. 

Medici 256 

Melange 256 

Melton 256 

Mercantile 256 

Mercer 256 

Merino 256 

Breed of sheep — Fabric. 

Merveilleuse 257 

Mesh 257 

Meter 257 

Metric System 257 

Milan Braid 258 

Milled Cloth . 258 

Milliner. 258 

MiUing 258 

Mill-Raye 258 

Mitts 258 

Mocha 259 

Mock Velvet 259 

Mohair 259 

Brilliantine — Sicillian — The liber — 
Where obtained — Average price. 

Moire 20® 

Moire antique — Moire ribbon — Moire 
nacre — How produced — Care exer- 
cised—Watered fabrics. 



Page. 

Moleskin... 260 

Momie 261 

Montanac 261 

Moquette. 261 

Mordant 261 

Moreen 262 

Mosquito Netting 263 

Mourning 263 

Musquetaire 263 

Mousseline-delaine 263 

Muff 263 

Muffler 263 

Mull 264 

Mullmull. 264 

Mull Muslin 264 

Mummy Cloth 264 

Mungo 264 

Muslin 264 

Origin of the word and fabric — Origi- 
nal home — Indian tissues — Factories 
— Yards made from one pound of cot- 
ton — Cost — Counts and picks of stand- 
ard grades (406 to 430). 

Mutual Accounts 267 

Mysore Silk 267 

Nacre 267 

Nagapore Silk 268 

Nainsook 268 

Nankeen 268 

Nap 268 

Napery. 268 

Napkin 269 

Napping 269 

Natural Thread 269 

Neck Cloth 269 

Necktie 269 

Needle 269 

How made — Polished— Helix eyes — 
Sharps — Betweens — Millinery — 
Ground-downs. 

Needle-loom 271 

Needle-threader 271 

Net 271 

Nether-stocking 271 

Netting-machine 272 

Nettle-cloth 272 

New Orleans cotton 272 

New Market 272 

Night-gown 272 

Noil 272 

Nom-de-drap 272 

Normal 272 

Nottingham Lace 272 

Nubia 272 

Nun's Cotton 273 

Nun's Veiling 273 

Nursery Cloth ._ 273 

NutriaFur 273 

Obi Cloth 273 

Oil Cloth.. - 273 

Oil Red.. 274 

Oiled Silk.. 274 

Oilskin 274 

Open Account... 274 

Organdie.. 274 

Organzine 274 

Osnaburg 275 

Ostrich Feathers 275 

Ottoman 276 

Outing Flannel.. 276 

Overalls 276 

Overcoat 277 

Overshoe ..- 277 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



581 



Oxford Shirting.... - 277 

Padding... 277 

Paduasoy — g/7 

Pajamas - 277 

Palempore 2/9 

Paletot 277 

Pallium..... 2(7 

Pantalets 278 

Pantella 278 

Pantaloons 278 

Paper 2"8 

Process of manufacture — The three 
ways— Plain wove— Linen— Rag— News 
—Sizes— Laid paper— Water marks. 

Paper Collars 282 

Paper Linge £°« 

Papier-mache «jj 

Paramatta Cloth 282 

Parasol. 282 

Partnership - 282 

Limited— General— Special— Dormant 

Passe 283 

Passementerie £°3 

Passement 284 

Pearl Buttons. 284 

Pearl . 284 

Pea-jacket £°* 

Peau-de-soie 234 

Pebble 284 

Pekin.. 284 

Pelisse 284 

Penang 285 

Percale 285 

Petticoat. 285 

Picking 285 

Picot... 285 

Piece-dyed 28b 

Piece-goods 28o 

Pigment Color 286 

Pile 286 

Pile Weaving 28b 

Pillow . — 286 

Pillow Lace 287 

Pillow Cloth 237 

Pin - — — ■ 287 

Early varieties— Spun head and 
wound head — Modern manufacture- 
Why numbered with letters— Adaman- 
tine — Corkings— Brass. 

Pina-cloth 288 

Pinafore 289 

Pineapple Cloth 289 

Piaue _. 289 

Plaid 289 

Plastron... »» 

Plush - 289 

Origin of name and fabric — How wov- 
en and finished— Hatter's plush— Mo- 
hair — Silk — Hand products. 

Ply 290 

P.M. (Premium money) 290 

Polo Caps... 2»0 

Polonaise - £91 

Pompadour.. 291 

Ponceau gjjl 

Poncho - *Jf 

Pongee £»} 

Poplin. 291 

Portiere... g™ 

Prayer Bug &M 

Prunella 292 



Page. 

Purple — -- — 292 

The ancient color — How produced- 
Tyrian purple— The modern coal tar 

Quaker-color 293 

Quality Binding - »» 

Quarter Blanket «|jj 

Queen Stitch - j™ 

Quilling - «* 

Quilt 294 

Quilting 294 

Radsimir — £°* 

Rag-wool 294 

Raiment 294 

Ramie £94 

Ratteen.. - 295 

Rebozo - 296 

Recherche - »•*» 

Redingote 29b 

Reed |96 

Reefer - — 296 

Reel -—296 

Regular ^ 

Remnant %™ 

Rep 296 

Repellent -297 

Reseau %°J, 

Retail 297 

Reticule 297 

Ribbon v- 297 

First English ribbons— Former use by 
men— What the "number" indicates— 
The silk— Domestic goods— Weaving. 

Rigby Cloth.... -—298 

Rigolette 299 

Robe-de chambre --- £xx 

Rope - 299 

Rubbers -- .-- «"* 

The per cent, of pure rubber m 
footwear— How they are made— Wages 
—Factories in the U. 8.— Capacity per 
day— Exports. 

Ruching - 800 

Ruff - 300 

j{ U g .. 301 

Foreign and domestic— How identi- 
fied—Oriental and antique. 

Russet 302 

Russet Leather 303 

Russian Embroidery - --- »03 

Sack - — 303 

Sack-cloth - — - 303 

Safety Pin 303 

Salary - 803 

Samite 308 

Sash - -— 304 

Sateen — 304 

Satine 8°± 

Satin 304 

Origin of name and fabric— Early uses 
— High luster, how produced— How 
woven— The twill. 

Satin Cloth.. 306 

Satin Damask - jJOjj 

Satin de Bruges »* 

Satin Cuttanee 306 

Satin de Lyon... --- *o° 

Satin Duchess "0° 

Satin or Broken Twill «jw» 

Satinet... — 807 

SatmJean 307 

Satin Regence «£' 

Satin Rhadame 307 



582 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Satin Royal 307 

Satin Sheeting 307 

Satin Surah 307 

Say Cloth 308 

Sayette •_ 308 

Scarfing 308 

Schedule 1 308 

Scissors . 305 

Scotch Cambric 308 

Scotch Cap 308 

Scotch Carpet 308 

Scrim 308 

Sealskin 308 

Vast rookeries — Number taken an- 
nually — Dyeing secrets — Old apple 
dye — Coats of dye required — Cutting. 

Sealskin Cloth 310 

Selvage 310 

Seersucker 311 

Serge 311 

History — How woven — 9 varieties. 

Seric 311 

Serpentine Braid . 311 

Serviette 311 

Sewing Silk . 312 

Colonial fireside industry — Amount 
produced annually — Spooling — Skein 
silk — Pure dyed and standard dyed 
— Sizes, colors and letters. 

Shadow Silk 312 

Shaker Flannel 312 

Origin of the name and fabric— Im- 
itation. 

Shalloon _. 312 

Shantung Pongee Silk 313 

Shaps 313 

Shawl 313 

Shawl Material 313 

Sheep-gut. - .. 318 

Sheer 313 

Sheeting 313 

Range of width — Standard — Pillow 
Casing — Counts, picks and number of 
yards per pound of standard makes 
(Pg. 406 to 430.) 

Shetland lace 313 

Shetland Shawls 313 

Shift 313 

Shirt.... 313 

First introduction of garment — Deriv- 
iation of the word — Range of sizes — 
Standard dimensions — Number of 
stitches in a shirt — Embroidered 
goods — Superstition. 

Shirting 315 

Oxford— Flannel— Napping. 

Shirt Waist 315 

Shoddy 316 

Mungo, new and old — How produced 
— Uses— Value— Influence on the price 
of wool — Tariff . 

Shoes 317 

Shoe Pegs.... 317 

Shoe Protector 318 

Shoe Thread 318 

Shot 318 

As applied to silk fabrics. 

Shroud 318 

Shuttle 318 

Sicillian 318 

Side Comb 318 

Silisia... 818 

Silk 318 



Page. 
The word in 20 languages— Number of 
people to whom it furnishes employ- 
ment — By whom discovered — The 
fiber in China — Introduction in Eu- 
rope — Theft of the Romans— Spread 
of the industry —Introduction in U. S. 
in 1622— Sewing silk — Speculation in 
silk worms and mulberry trees— 9-10 
of the world's supply — Price of co- 
coons — Number required for a silk 
dress — Reeled silk — Spun silk — 
Thrown silk — Price of the best and 
where obtained — Ocean freights— An- 
nual importation — Organzine — Tram 
and Singles— Price — Scouring and 
bleaching— Dyeing and "loading" — 
How adulterated — 150 ounces per 
pound — Chemicals used — Weaving — 
Gassing and burling — Half silk goods 
— 12 tests for determining the quality 
— Manufacture in the U. S. — Machin- 
ery used — Number of factories — Value 
of annual production— Industry in 
France and China— The Lyons manu- 
factures—The French workmen — Gen- 
uine China silks — Imitations. 

Singeing „ 337 

Sizing .. 887 

Skein 338 

Skirt. 838 

Smock-frock 338 

Socks 838 

Spatterdash 838 

Spinning 830 

When invented — Large and small 
wheels— James Hargreaves— A crazy 
mob — Unfortunate inventor — Mule 
Jenny — Spinning frame — Throstles — 
Modern machinery. 

Sponga Silk 840 

Spool Cotton 340 

Sprig 340 

Stockinette .— 341 

Stockings 341 

Material of which formally made- 
Invention of knitting— Ribbed — Sizes 
— A "round." 

Stocking Yarn 341 

Stuff 842 

Suede 342 

Sumac - — . 342 

Sunshade. 342 

Surah Silk 342 

Surplice 342 

Surtout.-. — 342 

Suspenders 342 

Sweater 343 

Swiss 343 

Swiss Embroidery 343 

Swivel 343 

Tabaret... 343 

Tabbinet 343 

Tabby 343 

Table Linen ... 343 

• Dimensions of cloths — Damask slips 
Tea cloth — Dinner napkins — Damask 
doylies — Tray cloths — Dimensions. 

Taffeta... 344 

Tailor 345 

Talma ... 345 

Tambour Work 345 

Tamin. 845 

Tamise 345 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



583 



Tammy 34b 

Tarn O'Shanter 34b 

Tapestry rfit > 

Giles Gobelin— The French manufac- 
ture — Romance — The devil — 14,000 
colors— N euilly — Jacquard — Cluny— 
Tapestry cloth— Hand looms. 

Tariff 348 

Advaiorem and specific duties— The 
present rate of duty on all fabrics and 
articles of merchandise (431 to 442.) 



Tarlatan . 



348 



Tartan . . 7.7. 7777" _ . — 348 

(Ian, shepherds, and silk tartans- 
Tartan velvet. 

iassei gin 

Teaslin 0, _ . — 

Napping," g ' gging, fulling, and milling 
—Object and purpose— Cheviot and 
broadcloth — How the nap is raised- 
Machines— Cropping and shearing — 
Fancy surfaces— Metal teasels. 

Teasel (. ioth - j»l 

Tea-cloth »•?{• 

Terry-cloth a=>i 

Invention— Samuel Holt's misfor- 
tune—How woven— Terry Velvet. 

Textile %\} 

Texture l°\ 

Thibet cloth *£ 

Thimble -,- ---- -~ 3 5<i 

History and manufacture— Sizes. 

Thread -. 

Thread gloves and thread lace— Linen 
thread— Invention of cotton thread- 
Samuel Slater— Jobbing prices since 
lyijO— How and where manufactured— 
Thread numbers— bystem of sizes- 
Qualities -Spools. 

Throstle.-- gg5 

Tick 35b 

'I'ickina - - • 

CountsTand pi7ks (Pg. 42b to 428.) 

Tile f 7 

Tinsel — - *» 

Tippet ™' 

Tissue... ™' 

Toga — f' 

ToiJo „._. 357 

Toilet.. - f57 

Toilinette ™° 

Toque. — ---- |° 

Tortoise-shell *)» 

Towel— —|S 

Town-made 

Trade-mark 

Tram 

Tricot 

Trousers — ----- 

Pantaloons and breeches, 



358 
358 

359 
359 
359 



Page. 
Twm 362 

Twines "and Strings. 362 

Twine cloth 



Trunks 359 

Trust — - *g 

Tulle 359 

Tunic - — — 30" 

Turkey Red ....—.-- *° 

Origin of the name and color— Process 
of dyeing— Dunging— Madder— Cochi- 
neal— Why the color is fast. 

Turkish Towel -- %°\ 

Turk'sSatin „ — - - ™£ 

TussahSilk 3W 

Tweed — - ibi 



Ulster. 



362 



Umbrella 77777777777. — — -.362 

First introduction— Manufacture and 
sizes— Silk Umbrellas. 

Underwear .- -r-i'-V 

Material used— Comparative suitabil- 
ity of various fibers— Wool, silk and 
linen 



Union Cassimere 



3t)5 



Union Underwear 365 

Upholstery *•> 

Utrecht Velvet 3b5 

Valentia 365 

Vegetable Flannel a™ 

Vegetable Leather 3bb 

Vegetable Ivory *j( 

Vegetable Fiber - --- ljj° 

Vegetable Silk - 36b 

Veil 366 

Vellum 3bb 

Velure fbb 

Velvet — --—-- 3b7 

Historical mention — Ancient uses — 
Process employed in the weaving- 
How the pile is formed— The wires- 
Loops to the inch — Fine qualities — 
Stamped velvet — Ponson velvet: — Ter- 
ry and rubber velvet — Velvet broche. 

Velveteen -• 368 

Where woven — I importations — Effect 
of the tariff— How dyes— Velveteen 

Vest^...-- ---« 

Victorme - «~«; 

Vicuna "J" 

Waban Netting fb9 

Wadding «>» 

Wale 369 

Warmus 3ba 

Warp 3b9 

Wash-Blonde 369 

Watered -... 370 

As applied to silk fabrics and rib- 
bons. ... 

Watteau Pleat 370 

Weaving ----,- d ' u 

The invention — Penelope at the loom 
— Homerian romance — Early Egyp- 
tian weaving — The invention claimed 
by many nations — Industry in Eng- 
land—Origin of surnames — Deriva- 
tion of "wife" from "weaving — 
The hand loom — 11th century loom — 
18th century loom — How fabrics are 
woven — Plain weaving — Figure 
weaving — Double weaving — 3 ply and 
4 ply — Gauze Weaving— Pile weav- 
ing—Illustrations of looms— Fancy 
cotton loom— Flannel and jeans 

looms Worsted loom — Carpet loom 

Broad-cloth loom— Satinet loom- 
Silk loom— Ribbon loom — Burling 
and Winding machine, Etc—How 
cloth is finished— Cost of weaving- 
Modern factories — Pacific mills. 



Weft. 



388 



Whalebone .777. 77 - 388 

Price and annual catch — Cause of the 
scarcity-Inferior substitutes. 

Whipcord 3sa 



584 



COLE'S DICTIONARY OF DRY GOODS. 



Page. 
Wool 390 

The first fiber used by man — Animals 
■which produce wool — Distinction be- 
tween wool and hair — The structure 
of the fibre — Scales per inch — How 
wool is judged — Difference between 
woolen and worsted — Carding, comb- 
ing, carpet and knitting wools — 
Amount consumed in the U. S. — Cap- 
ital invested in wool manufacturing 
— Center of the industry — How 
treated at the factory — Spinning and 
bleaching — Sulphuring — The number 

of sheep in the world — In the U. S 

Finest qualities of wool. 

Woolens 396 

The manufacture of "woolen" fabrics 
— How "woolen" yarn is spun — Kind 
of fiber required — How woolens are 
distinguished — Fulling and napping. 

Worsteds 397 

Early history — When introduced — 
How distinguished — The four classes 
manufactured — Surface appearance. 

Yacht-cloth 398 

Yarn 399 

Preparation for weaving — Spinning 
— Dyeing — Loss of length in twisting 
— Openband and crossband. 

Appendix "A." 400 to 405 

Length and range of "sizes" of gar- 
ments and articles in general use — 
Amount of material required for 
articles and garments — Amount of 
material required for children's waists 
from 3 to 12 years — Hosiery and shoe 
sizes (Ladies', Children's and Men's.) 
— Underwear sizes, giving number re- 
quired for children from 1 to 18 years 
— Drawers — Sizes of Ladies Vests and 
corresponding bust measure — Flat 
goods — Jersey goods — Dress linings. 

Appendix "B." ..406 to 430 

Width, number of yards to the pound 
and counts of threads to the inch of 
all the standard makes of domestic 
cottons, ginghams and ticks, etc. 

Appendix "C." 431 to 442 

The exact tariff on all the leading 
articles imported — The McKinley bill 
in full in its relation to Dry Goods — 
Cotton, Silk, Wool, Flax, Hemp, and 
Jute and their manufactures — But- 
tons, Leather, Needles, etc — Miscel- 
laneous — Free list. 

Appendix "D." 443 to 466 

List of German words and phrases, 
with English spelling and pronunci- 
ation, including the names of all 
American and English fabrics, gar- 
ments _ and articles of general mer- 
chandise — trade terms and phrases — 
eazy expressions and sentences — ad- 
jectives — conjunctions — pronouns,etc. 

Window Tbimming 466 to 566 

(Finely Illustrated.) 
The necessity — What a trimmed win- 
dow indicates — Advantage to clerks 
seeking advancement — Ease with 
which the art can be learned— First 
principles of Window Dressing— Rules 
to be observed— Colorsand Combina- 
tions—Background — Light — Arrange- 



Page. 
ment — How to begin a window — Silk 
Puffs and Folds— Silk display racks- 
Draperies — Harmonious colors— Print 
puffs — Dress Goods— Drapery— Slat 
dummy, Box dummy, Paper dummy 
and Spreader— How to drape a 
"dummy" — The Tier Window — Wood- 
en Tiers, Metal Tiers, Arms, Easles 
and Fixtures— Towel Drapery — A Lily 
Window — Easter Lily window — A n 
Easter design — A Clock window — 
Hosiery — A May-pole window — A To- 
boggan Slide — A Ribbon window--A 
Button "Wheel"— A Button display — 
A Gingham window — Pins and Need- 
les — An Underwear and Hosiery Win- 
dow — Spool Cotton window — Stock- 
ing window — A Parasol window — A 
"Color" window-A "Canning- Apron" 
window— Table Oilcloths— Table cov- 
ers and Napkins — A Lace " Foun- 
tain" — A "Grand Army" window — 
Four "Bridge" windows — A Corset 
window — Cloaks— A Suiting window — 
A "Vase" of dress goods — To display 
of dress goods without " forms " — 
Glove and Fan window — Kid Glove 
display— Glove Arrangement — Plush 
and Velvet "drums" — Dress Goods 
columns— A Fan of dress goods — A 
"Tent" window — A Cupola window — 
A Portiere window — A Pipe Organ of 
Ribbon — An Indian Wigwam— The 
Fancy Dress window — Handkerchiefs 
and Underwear — The Lover's win- 
dow — Corset window — A Lace win- 
dow — Hosiery — Christmas window 
trimming — Christmas Scenes — An in- 
terior trim — A Ship window — Lace 
Curtains — How to dress a Christmas 
tree — Mixed windows — How to keep 
windows from frosting — How to have 
bright windows — An Easter Handker- 
chief trim— A Silk and Velvet win- 
dow — Dress Goods Drapery — A Suit- 
ing window — A Stocky Dress Goods 
display — An Evening Dress window — 
A Towel and Damask design — A 
Fancy Flannel window— A Display of 
Blankets— A Blanket window— Fancy 
Handkerchief window — A Simple 
Suiting Window— China Silk Window 
—French Flannel Window — Passa- 
menterie Window— An Unique Silk 
Window — Fine Linen Window— A 
Ribbon Sale — A Serge and Cheviot 
Window — Heavy Silk Drapery — A 
Loaded Canon— Lace and Chiffon 
Drapery— Nearly 100 fine Illustrations. 

Advice to Salesman 566 to 575 

The future of the Dry Goods clerk— 
His power to create or destroy trade— 
The sour-faced trade wrecker — The 
ideal salesman — Cranky customers-- 
How to sell them— How to show 
goods— Conveying favorable impress- 
ions—The first minute— The five differ- 
ent classes of customers — How each 
are brought to the point of buying — 
A frequent fault of salespeople— Some 
good rules — How to wait on two cus- 
tomers — Five rules for handling cus- 
tomers. 




« ' 



/ /f 



HIHKiH 

■ " 

■ ■ »•■ 

mMWmWWU9999^^mWM 

HHHMHI^MHHIF 
iUUUUui HMmmH J w W Wr fui ■■ 

RSmH ■ ■ ■ 



' ■ ' ' mm 

■n 



WW 



mm Wffg Hii 



ubrarToTcongress 




I 



nsnsan 



mwSi !J(m)hS HflH l^'i'it', 1 ..-! flHyPn 

§■■ ', :;',^C;kt;>uVf;„'::;i;i:ii: 



